Shared vehicle service providing method performed by server communicating with user device of passenger and autonomous vehicle

ABSTRACT

Proposed is a shared vehicle service providing method based on a shared vehicle management server communicating with a shared vehicle and a user device. Also proposed is a shared vehicle service providing method for managing an article of a shared vehicle user on the basis of a shared vehicle management server. For example, proposed is a shared vehicle service providing method in which a shared vehicle management server manages dispatch of a shared vehicle and an article of a user on the basis of data acquired from the shared vehicle and a user device.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/341,992, filed on Jun. 8, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 17/036,402, filed on Sep. 29, 2020, now U.S.Pat. No. 11,062,416, issued on Jul. 13, 2021, which claims priority toand the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0025274, filedon Feb. 28, 2020, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0025275,filed on Feb. 28, 2020, the disclosures of each of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a shared vehicle, a shared vehicleservice providing device, a shared vehicle service management server, ashared vehicle service providing system, and a shared vehicle serviceproviding method.

Description of Related Technology

Recently, results of development in various industrial fields are beingapplied to vehicles, and vehicle-related technology is being developed.Accordingly, research and development on autonomous vehicles continues.In this way, various services related to autonomous vehicles areappearing.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to providing a method of managing ashared vehicle service.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided amethod for providing a shared vehicle service performed by a servercommunicating with a user device of a passenger and an autonomousvehicle, comprising: performing a dispatch management of the autonomousvehicle by receiving a call message including a pickup location and adrop-off location from the user device and dispatching the autonomousvehicle to the pickup location; receiving an emergency message relatedto a lost article of a first passenger who had used the shared vehicleservice and got off from the autonomous vehicle; determining whether theautonomous vehicle is dispatched after dropping off the first passenger;when the autonomous vehicle is in an available state, dispatching theautonomous vehicle to the first passenger; and when the autonomousvehicle is dispatched to a second passenger, transmitting a messageasking whether the shared vehicle service is canceled or not for thedispatched autonomous vehicle to a second user device of the secondpassenger, and receiving a message indicating whether the shared vehicleservice is canceled or not from the second user device, wherein when themessage received from the second user device indicates the sharedvehicle service is canceled, the autonomous vehicle is dispatched to thefirst passenger, and wherein when the message received from the seconduser device indicates the shared vehicle service is not canceled, theautonomous vehicle is dispatched to the first passenger after droppingoff the second passenger.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform amethod for providing a shared vehicle service comprising: performing adispatch management of an autonomous vehicle by receiving a call messageincluding a pickup location and a drop-off location from a user deviceand dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the pickup location; receivingan emergency message related to a lost article of a first passenger whohad used the shared vehicle service and dropped off from the autonomousvehicle; determining whether the autonomous vehicle is dispatched afterdropping off the first passenger; when the autonomous vehicle is in anavailable state, dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the firstpassenger; and when the autonomous vehicle is dispatched to a secondpassenger, transmitting a message asking whether the shared vehicleservice is canceled or not for the dispatched autonomous vehicle to asecond user device of the second passenger, and receiving a messageindicating whether the shared vehicle service is canceled or not fromthe second user device, wherein when the message received from thesecond user device indicates the shared vehicle service is canceled, theautonomous vehicle is dispatched to the first passenger, and whereinwhen the message received from the second user device indicates theshared vehicle service is not canceled, the autonomous vehicle isdispatched to the first passenger after dropping off the secondpassenger.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda method for providing a shared vehicle service performed by a servercommunicating with a user device of passenger and an autonomous vehicle,comprising: performing a dispatch management of the autonomous vehicleby receiving a call message including a pickup location and a drop-offlocation from the user device and dispatching the autonomous vehicle tothe pickup location; receiving an emergency message related to a lostarticle of a first passenger who had used the shared vehicle service anddropped off from the autonomous vehicle; determining whether theautonomous vehicle is dispatched after dropping off the first passenger;when the autonomous vehicle is in an available state, transmitting amessage indicating a delivery of the lost article to the first userdevice of the first passenger and dispatching the autonomous vehicle tothe first passenger; and when the autonomous vehicle is dispatched to asecond passenger, transmitting a message indicating a delivery delay ofthe lost article to the first user device of the first passenger anddispatching the autonomous vehicle to the first passenger after droppingoff the second passenger.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda method for providing a shared vehicle service performed by a servercommunicating with a user device of a passenger and an autonomousvehicle, comprising: performing a dispatch management of the autonomousvehicle by receiving a call message including a pickup location and adrop-off location from the user device and dispatching the autonomousvehicle to the pickup location; dispatching a first vehicle to a firstpassenger; and receiving an emergency message related to a lost articleof a second passenger who had used the shared vehicle service with thefirst vehicle before the first passenger; wherein, when the emergencymessage is received, the shared vehicle providing method comprising:when if a driving for the first passenger has not started, cancellingthe dispatch of the first vehicle for the first passenger, transmittinga cancel message of the shared vehicle service related to the firstvehicle, and dispatching the first vehicle to the second passenger, andwhen if the driving for the first passenger has started, transmitting amessage of a deliver delay for the lost article to the second userdevice of the second passenger, and dispatching the first vehicle to thesecond passenger after the driving for the first passenger has beendone.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform amethod for providing a shared vehicle service comprising: performing adispatch management of an autonomous vehicle by receiving a call messageincluding a pickup location and a drop-off location from a user deviceand dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the pickup location;dispatching a first vehicle to a first passenger; and receiving anemergency message related to a lost article of a second passenger whohad used the shared vehicle service with the first vehicle before thefirst passenger; wherein, when the emergency message is received, theshared vehicle providing method comprising: when if a driving for thefirst passenger has not started, cancelling the dispatch of the firstvehicle for the first passenger, transmitting a cancel message of theshared vehicle service related to the first vehicle, and dispatching thefirst vehicle to the second passenger, and when if the driving for thefirst passenger has started, transmitting a message of a deliver delayfor the lost article to the second user device of the second passenger,and dispatching the first vehicle to the second passenger after thedriving for the first passenger has been done.

Solutions for solving the problems of the present disclosure are notlimited to the above-described solutions, and other unmentionedsolutions may be clearly understood by those skilled in the art fromthis disclosure and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart by describing exemplary embodiments thereof in detail with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a shared vehicle service providingsystem according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a user device according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a shared vehicle according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an intra-vehicle sensor of a shared vehicleaccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a set of diagrams showing an element for displaying a state ofa shared vehicle according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a shared vehicle management serveraccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram of a shared vehicle service providingmethod performed by a shared vehicle, a server, and a device accordingto the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a vehicle travel path generated with the useof a shared vehicle service according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the shared vehicle service providing methodperformed by a shared vehicle management server according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a travel path of a vehicle which moves whena problematic situation occurs in the shared vehicle service accordingto the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the shared vehicle service providing methodperformed by the shared vehicle management server when a problematicsituation occurs in the shared vehicle service according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a table showing service-use history data stored in the sharedvehicle management server according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a table showing vehicle information data stored in the sharedvehicle management server according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of the shared vehicle service providing methodperformed by the shared vehicle management server when a problematicsituation occurs in the shared vehicle service according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a billing process performed by the sharedvehicle management server when a problematic situation occurs in theshared vehicle service according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a shared vehicle service providingsystem in relation to article storing according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 17 to 20 illustrate a shared vehicle management process related toarticle storing according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 21 to 23 illustrate a shared vehicle management process related toarticle storing according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure when a plurality of users use the shared vehicle service.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In addition, with the universalization of autonomous vehicles, variousresearchers expect the ownership of a vehicle to be gradually shared inconsideration of costs, environmental effects, users' convenience, andthe like. Further, with the development of Internet technology, theconnectivity between a user device and a vehicle is being improved, andautonomous vehicle sharing services tend to gradually appear to varioususers on the basis of the development of autonomous vehicle technology.

Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.However, the spirit of the present disclosure is not limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Those of ordinary skill in the art towhich the present disclosure pertains can easily propose otherinventions included in the scope of a regressive invention or thepresent disclosure by adding, changing, removing, etc. elements withinthe scope of the present disclosure, but the embodiments also fallwithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings of embodiments, elements having the samefunctionality within the same spirit will be indicated by the samereference signs.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided amethod for providing a shared vehicle service performed by a servercommunicating with a user device of a passenger and an autonomousvehicle, comprising: performing a dispatch management of the autonomousvehicle by receiving a call message including a pickup location and adrop-off location from the user device and dispatching the autonomousvehicle to the pickup location; receiving an emergency message relatedto a lost article of a first passenger who had used the shared vehicleservice and got off from the autonomous vehicle; determining whether theautonomous vehicle is dispatched after dropping off the first passenger;when the autonomous vehicle is in an available state, dispatching theautonomous vehicle to the first passenger; and when the autonomousvehicle is dispatched to a second passenger, transmitting a messageasking whether the shared vehicle service is canceled or not for thedispatched autonomous vehicle to a second user device of the secondpassenger, and receiving a message indicating whether the shared vehicleservice is canceled or not from the second user device, wherein when themessage received from the second user device indicates the sharedvehicle service is canceled, the autonomous vehicle is dispatched to thefirst passenger, and wherein when the message received from the seconduser device indicates the shared vehicle service is not canceled, theautonomous vehicle is dispatched to the first passenger after droppingoff the second passenger.

In addition, the method further comprises, when the autonomous vehicleis in the available state, transmitting a message indicating a deliveryof the lost article to the first user device of the first passenger; andwhen the message received from the second user device indicates theshared vehicle service is canceled, the message indicating a delivery ofthe lost article is transmitted to the first user device.

In addition, when the message received from the second user deviceindicates the shared vehicle service is not canceled, a messageindicating a delivery delay of the lost article is transmitted to thefirst user device of the first passenger.

In addition, when the message received from the second user deviceindicates the shared vehicle service is canceled, another autonomousvehicle is dispatched to the second passenger.

In addition, when the message received from the second user deviceindicates the shared vehicle service is canceled, a reward which is atleast available at cost of the shared vehicle service is offered.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform amethod for providing a shared vehicle service comprising: performing adispatch management of an autonomous vehicle by receiving a call messageincluding a pickup location and a drop-off location from a user deviceand dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the pickup location; receivingan emergency message related to a lost article of a first passenger whohad used the shared vehicle service and dropped off from the autonomousvehicle; determining whether the autonomous vehicle is dispatched afterdropping off the first passenger; when the autonomous vehicle is in anavailable state, dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the firstpassenger; and when the autonomous vehicle is dispatched to a secondpassenger, transmitting a message asking whether the shared vehicleservice is canceled or not for the dispatched autonomous vehicle to asecond user device of the second passenger, and receiving a messageindicating whether the shared vehicle service is canceled or not fromthe second user device, wherein when the message received from thesecond user device indicates the shared vehicle service is canceled, theautonomous vehicle is dispatched to the first passenger, and whereinwhen the message received from the second user device indicates theshared vehicle service is not canceled, the autonomous vehicle isdispatched to the first passenger after dropping off the secondpassenger.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda method for providing a shared vehicle service performed by a servercommunicating with a user device of passenger and an autonomous vehicle,comprising: performing a dispatch management of the autonomous vehicleby receiving a call message including a pickup location and a drop-offlocation from the user device and dispatching the autonomous vehicle tothe pickup location; receiving an emergency message related to a lostarticle of a first passenger who had used the shared vehicle service anddropped off from the autonomous vehicle; determining whether theautonomous vehicle is dispatched after dropping off the first passenger;when the autonomous vehicle is in an available state, transmitting amessage indicating a delivery of the lost article to the first userdevice of the first passenger and dispatching the autonomous vehicle tothe first passenger; and when the autonomous vehicle is dispatched to asecond passenger, transmitting a message indicating a delivery delay ofthe lost article to the first user device of the first passenger anddispatching the autonomous vehicle to the first passenger after droppingoff the second passenger.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda method for providing a shared vehicle service performed by a servercommunicating with a user device of a passenger and an autonomousvehicle, comprising: performing a dispatch management of the autonomousvehicle by receiving a call message including a pickup location and adrop-off location from the user device and dispatching the autonomousvehicle to the pickup location; dispatching a first vehicle to a firstpassenger; and receiving an emergency message related to a lost articleof a second passenger who had used the shared vehicle service with thefirst vehicle before the first passenger; wherein, when the emergencymessage is received, the shared vehicle providing method comprising:when if a driving for the first passenger has not started, cancellingthe dispatch of the first vehicle for the first passenger, transmittinga cancel message of the shared vehicle service related to the firstvehicle, and dispatching the first vehicle to the second passenger, andwhen if the driving for the first passenger has started, transmitting amessage of a deliver delay for the lost article to the second userdevice of the second passenger, and dispatching the first vehicle to thesecond passenger after the driving for the first passenger has beendone.

In addition, performing the dispatch management of the autonomousvehicle further comprises, receiving the call message including thepickup location, transmitting a dispatch message of moving to the pickuplocation to a vehicle in which a service state is in an available state,changing the service state of the autonomous vehicle to a reserved statefrom the available state, changing the service state of the autonomousvehicle to a using state from the reserved state according to atransmission of a riding message indicating that the passenger rides onthe autonomous vehicle, and changing the service state of the autonomousvehicle to the available state from the using state according to atransmission of a drop-off message indicating the passenger dropping offthe autonomous vehicle.

In addition, the service state is displayed by a visual indicator, andthe service state is displayed to distinguish at least one of theavailable state, the reserved state and the using state.

In addition, the method further comprises, when the emergency message isreceived from the second user device of the second passenger, searchingfor the first vehicle based on service history data of the secondpassenger.

In addition, the method further comprises, when the emergency message isreceived from the first user device of the first passenger, searchingfor the second passenger among passengers who had used the sharedvehicle service of the first vehicle based on service history data ofthe first vehicle.

In addition, the autonomous vehicle includes a sensor detecting anobject inside the autonomous vehicle, and the emergency message isreceived from the first vehicle based on information obtained throughthe sensor of the first vehicle.

In addition, the method further comprises, transmitting an informmessage to the second passenger upon the first vehicle is dispatched tothe second passenger through the emergency message, wherein the informmessage is related to a reclaiming cost of the lost article calculatedbased on location information of the first vehicle and locationinformation of the second passenger.

In addition, the method further comprises, transmitting a reward messageaccording to the emergency message to the first passenger upon the firstvehicle is dispatched to the second passenger through the emergencymessage.

In addition, the reward message is related to a reward available atleast in the shared vehicle service.

In addition, the sensor detects whether the passenger rides on theautonomous vehicle with an article, and when the article is recognizedafter completion of driving of the passenger, the autonomous vehicletransmits the emergency message indicating recognition of the articleinside the autonomous vehicle to the server.

In addition, the sensor includes at least one of a RaDAR (RadioDetection And Ranging) device, a RGB camera and a LIDAR (Light DetectionAnd Ranging or Laser Imaging, Detection And Ranging) device.

In addition, the method further comprises, transmitting a reward messageaccording to the emergency message to the first passenger who isreceived the cancel message as the first vehicle is dispatched to thesecond passenger.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provideda non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform amethod for providing a shared vehicle service comprising: performing adispatch management of an autonomous vehicle by receiving a call messageincluding a pickup location and a drop-off location from a user deviceand dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the pickup location;dispatching a first vehicle to a first passenger; and receiving anemergency message related to a lost article of a second passenger whohad used the shared vehicle service with the first vehicle before thefirst passenger; wherein, when the emergency message is received, theshared vehicle providing method comprising: when if a driving for thefirst passenger has not started, cancelling the dispatch of the firstvehicle for the first passenger, transmitting a cancel message of theshared vehicle service related to the first vehicle, and dispatching thefirst vehicle to the second passenger, and when if the driving for thefirst passenger has started, transmitting a message of a deliver delayfor the lost article to the second user device of the second passenger,and dispatching the first vehicle to the second passenger after thedriving for the first passenger has been done.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a shared vehicleservice providing method performed by a server which communicates with asmart device of a passenger and an autonomous vehicle includes managingdispatch of the autonomous vehicle by receiving a first call messageincluding a pickup location and a destination location from the userdevice and dispatching the autonomous vehicle to the pickup location,transmitting, by a first smart device of a first passenger, the firstcall message, and when the call message includes a request to store anarticle of the first passenger, transmitting a dispatch messagerequesting a first vehicle to move from a first storage, which is theclosest storage to the first pickup location, to a first pickup locationto the first smart device and the first vehicle, and when the firstvehicle arrives at a second storage, transmitting a notification messagethat the article of the first passenger is stored in the second storageto the first smart device.

The shared vehicle service providing method may further includeretransmitting, by the first smart device, the first call message and,when the first call message includes a request to reclaim the article,searching for a second vehicle present at the second storage anddispatching the second vehicle carrying the article of the firstpassenger to the first passenger.

When the destination location includes only one destination, a storagecorresponding to the destination may be determined as the secondstorage.

When the destination location includes a first destination and a seconddestination, the first destination may correspond to the destinationlocation of the first passenger, and the second destination maycorrespond to a destination of the article.

A storage corresponding to the second destination may be determined asthe second storage.

The notification message may include a personal authentication meansused for storing and reclaiming the article of the first passenger.

The personal authentication means may be set by at least one of abarcode, a quick response (QR) code, radio frequency identification(RFID), a password, a pattern, and biometric recognition.

Each of the first storage and the second storage may include a storagespace in which the article may be stored.

The storage space may be set to be secured or unsecured by a personalauthentication means based on at least one of a barcode, a QR code,RFID, a password, a pattern, and biometric recognition.

The shared vehicle service providing method may further include, whenthe article of the first passenger is stored in the second storagethrough the notification message, transmitting a notification messageabout a storage fee of the article calculated on the basis of thedestination location of the first passenger and a location of the secondstorage to the first passenger.

The shared vehicle service providing method may further include, whenthe first call message is retransmitted to request reclaiming of thearticle of the first passenger, transmitting a notification messageabout a reclaim cost of the article calculated on the basis of areclaiming location of the first passenger and a location of the secondstorage to the first passenger.

The managing of dispatch of the autonomous vehicle may include receivinga call message including a pickup location from the smart device,transmitting a dispatch message requesting a vehicle whose service stateis an available state to move to the pickup location to the vehicle,changing the service state of the vehicle from the available state to areserved state, when a riding message indicating that the passenger isriding in the vehicle is transmitted, changing the service state of thevehicle from the reserved state to an in-use state, and when a drop-offmessage is transmitted indicating that the passenger disembarks from thevehicle, changing the service state of the vehicle from the in-use stateto the available state.

A computer program may be provided to perform the shared vehicle serviceproviding method and be stored in a computer-readable recording medium.

This disclosure describes a shared vehicle service providing systemand/or method based on a shared vehicle management server whichcommunicates with a shared vehicle and a user device. Also, thisdisclosure describes a shared vehicle service providing system and/ormethod for managing an article of a shared vehicle user on the basis ofthe shared vehicle management server. Specifically, this disclosuredescribes a shared vehicle service providing system and/or method inwhich a shared vehicle management server manages dispatch of a sharedvehicle on the basis of data acquired from the shared vehicle and a userdevice when a problematic situation occurs in a process of using theshared vehicle service. In particular, this disclosure describes ashared vehicle service providing system and/or method in which a sharedvehicle management server manages dispatch of a shared vehicle on thebasis of data acquired from the shared vehicle and a user device when auser loses some articles in a process of using the shared vehicleservice.

A shared vehicle service providing method according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

The shared vehicle service providing method according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure may be performed by a sharedvehicle service providing system. The shared vehicle service may be aservice for providing a shared vehicle to a plurality of users as sharedvehicles are driven on the basis of autonomous-driving technology. Also,the shared vehicle service may be a service for providing the sharedvehicle to a plurality of users with high user convenience on the basisof various types of information of the shared vehicle and the users.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a shared vehicle service providingsystem according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.Referring to FIG. 1 , a shared vehicle service providing system 1 mayinclude at least one of a user device 10, a shared vehicle 20, and ashared vehicle management server 30. Also, in the shared vehicle serviceproviding system 1, at least two of the user device 10, the sharedvehicle 20, and the shared vehicle management server 30 may becontrolled through communication therebetween. Also, the shared vehicleservice providing system 1 may provide a shared vehicle service to auser through data transmission and reception between the shared vehiclemanagement server 30 and the user device 10 and the shared vehicle 20.

Each element of the shared vehicle service providing system 1 isdescribed in detail below.

The user device 10 may be a device through which user data and/or sharedvehicle data may be input, received, transmitted, or stored. The userdevice 10 may be a device accessing a network and/or the Internet orhaving a communication function of accessing a network and/or theInternet. The user device 10 may be a communication device capable oftransmitting or receiving data by accessing a network through a wirelessaccess device. For example, the user device 10 may be at least one of acellular phone, a smart phone, a laptop computer, a tablet personalcomputer (PC), and a netbook. The user device 10 may be configured to bewearable by a user and may be a smart wearable device such as a smartwatch, smart glasses, and smart jewelry. In this disclosure, a userdevice may be referred to as a “shared vehicle service providingterminal” or a “shared vehicle service providing server.”

Also, the user device 10 may be a device to which data of the user maybe input. The user device 10 may be a device through which location dataof the user may be acquired. For example, the user device 10 may includea global positioning system (GPS) and may provide location informationto the user on the basis of a location service provided through the GPS.A mobile application (app) may be used in the user device 10.Accordingly, data required for providing the shared vehicle serviceamong pieces of data stored in or acquired by the user device 10 may betransmitted to the shared vehicle management server 30 through themobile app so that the shared vehicle management server 30 may providethe shared vehicle service to the user.

A configuration of the user device 10 is described in further detailbelow.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the user device 10 according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The user device 10 mayinclude at least one of a device controller 110, a display 130, a deviceinformation acquiring unit 150, a device communication unit 170, and adevice receiving unit 190. However, the user device 10 is not limited tosuch a configuration, and another element may be further included or anelement may be replaced by another element as necessary.

The device controller 110 may control operation of the user device 10.The device controller 110 may control operation of at least one of thedisplay 130, the device information acquiring unit 150, the devicecommunication unit 170, and the device receiving unit 190.

The device controller 110 may include at least one of a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), one or more microprocessors, and other electronicparts capable of processing input data according to predetermined logic.For example, the device controller 110 may load process data and thelike for a shared vehicle management service, which will be describedbelow, between any two of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, andthe shared vehicle management server 30 onto the RAM and perform varioustypes of processing according to a loaded program.

The display 130 may display the shared vehicle management serviceprovided to the user device 10. Information to be displayed to the userthrough the display 130 may be controlled by the controller 110. Thedisplay 130 may display at least one of information stored in the userdevice 10 in advance, information input to the user device 10 by theuser, information acquired from the shared vehicle 20, and informationacquired from the shared vehicle management server 30.

Also, the display 130 may display information required to be input bythe user. The display 130 may display the content of the shared vehicleservice to support the shared vehicle service. For example, the display130 may display the location of the user device 10 and the location ofthe shared vehicle 20. The display 130 may display information on adestination specified by the user's manipulation, particularly, locationinformation, a travel path, a travel time, or the like of thedestination.

Further, the display 130 may provide icons, buttons, images, etc. whichmay be manipulated by the user to determine the user's intention ofreceiving the shared vehicle service. For example, when the usercontacts or taps at least some icons displayed on the display 130 withhis or her finger, the display 130 may display information correspondingto the user's intention of manipulation.

The device information acquiring unit 150 may acquire information fromat least one of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and theshared vehicle management server 30. The device information acquiringunit 150 may select and acquire information suited to the user'sintention from at least one of the user device 10, the shared vehicle20, and the shared vehicle management server 30.

As an example, the device information acquiring unit 150 may acquireuser information received through the device receiving unit 190. Theuser information may be location information, input information,preference information, article information, companion information,service use information, etc. of the user.

In particular, the location information of the user may include a pickuplocation of the shared vehicle service, and the pickup location may bedetermined on the basis of the location information and/or the inputinformation of the user. Also, the location information of the user maybe determined on the basis of location information, such as GPSinformation, of the user device 10. The location information of the usermay be changed according to the input information of the user.

The input information of the user may be information required to beinput so that the user may receive the shared vehicle service. Forexample, the input information of the user may be personal information,payment information, pickup and drop-off location information, etc. ofthe user.

When the user loads an article to use the shared vehicle service, thearticle information of the user may include information on the article.For example, the article information of the user may include informationon the state, type, weight, size, and inside of the article. The articleinformation of the user may include security information of the articleas necessary, and the security information may be a password, RFIDinformation, biometric recognition information, and the like. Theaforementioned article may be an object which is continuously carried bythe user, such as a purse or a cellular phone, or an object which iseasy to store such as a carrier or a bag.

The service use information of the user may include information on theuser's history of using the shared vehicle service. For example, theuser may request the shared vehicle service on the basis of an existinghistory of using the shared vehicle service. More specifically, theservice use information of the user may include information such as atime, a place, and a purpose for which the user has used the sharedvehicle service, a one way or return trip, a travel distance, a fee, andthe like. Also, the service use information of the user may includeinformation, such as user satisfaction, suggestions, and comments, thatis generated when the shared vehicle service is used.

The preference information of the user may include information on theuser's preference in receiving the shared vehicle service. For example,the preference information of the user may include preferenceinformation for the state, type, cleanness, design, whether to ridetogether, etc. of a vehicle provided in the shared vehicle service.

The companion information of the user may include information on acompanion when the user uses the shared vehicle service together withthe companion. For example, the companion information of the user mayinclude how many companions are there, how old the companion is, whetherthe companion has an article, and the like.

As another example, the device information acquiring unit 150 mayacquire shared vehicle information received through the device receivingunit 190. The shared vehicle information may include information on thetype, state of use, and location information of a vehicle provided inthe shared vehicle service.

In particular, the location information of the shared vehicle may bedetermined on the basis of location information, such as GPSinformation, of the shared vehicle 20. The type information of theshared vehicle may include a list of vehicles that may be provided inthe shared vehicle service, and the list may be selected and provided onthe basis of at least one of an available region and an available timeof the shared vehicle service. The state-of-use information of theshared vehicle may be classified into available, reserved, or in-use bythe condition information of the shared vehicle.

As another example, the device information acquiring unit 150 mayacquire information which is provided by the shared vehicle managementserver 30 and received through the device receiving unit 190. Theinformation provided by the shared vehicle management server 30 mayinclude vehicle path information, traffic information, etc. provided inthe shared vehicle service.

In particular, the vehicle path information provided in the sharedvehicle service may be provided on the basis of the location informationof the user and the location information of the shared vehicle. Forexample, the path information may be provided on the basis of an index,such as the shortest path or the shortest time according to the user'sselection. Also, the traffic information provided in the shared vehicleservice may include information on traffic situations which arereflected on the path information. The traffic information may includereal-time information on traffic situations occurring between the pickuplocation and the drop-off location when the user uses the shared vehicleservice.

The device communication unit 170 may perform communication between atleast two of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the sharedvehicle management server 30. The device communication unit 170 may beimplemented by a processor, which executes a communication interface,mainly on the basis of a memory and a storage device.

For example, the device communication unit 170 may cause a call messageor vehicle request information input from the user device 10 to betransmitted to the shared vehicle management server 30. Also, the devicecommunication unit 170 may cause information (a vehicle type, a vehiclelicense number, a vehicle color, etc.) on a shared vehicle dispatched bythe shared vehicle management server 30 to be received. Further, thedevice communication unit 170 may cause use information of the sharedvehicle provided by the shared vehicle management server 30 to betransmitted to the shared vehicle management server 30.

In addition, the device communication unit 170 may cause securityinformation required for the user to use the shared vehicle managementservice to be received from the shared vehicle management server 30. Thesecurity information may be riding security information (e.g., doorunlocking) for using the shared vehicle 20. Also, the securityinformation may be article-related security information for accessingthe trunk of the shared vehicle 20.

The device receiving unit 190 may receive user information input to theuser device 10. The information received through the device receivingunit 190 may be provided to the device information acquiring unit 150.Also, the device receiving unit 190 may receive information received bythe device communication unit 170. The device receiving unit 190 may beimplemented by a processor, which executes at least one of a userinterface and a communication interface, mainly on the basis of a memoryand a storage device.

A configuration of the shared vehicle 20 is described in further detailbelow.

The shared vehicle 20 may be an arbitrary vehicle which may be sharedamong a plurality of users. The shared vehicle 20 may be a vehicleprovided by a certain operator or operation company and may be used byat least some of the plurality of users for a certain time and/ordistance with a certain fee. In particular, the shared vehicle 20 may bean autonomous vehicle which may be shared among the plurality of users.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the shared vehicle 20 according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The shared vehicle 20may include at least one of a vehicle controller 210, a vehicleinformation acquiring unit 220, a drive unit 230, a state display 240, avehicle communication unit 250, and a vehicle receiving unit 260.However, the vehicle management server 30 is not limited to theconfiguration, and another element may be further included or an elementmay be replaced by another element as necessary.

The vehicle controller 210 may control operation of the shared vehicle20. The vehicle controller 210 may control operation of at least one ofthe vehicle information acquiring unit 220, the drive unit 230, thestate display 240, the vehicle communication unit 250, and the vehiclereceiving unit 260.

The vehicle controller 210 may include at least one of a CPU, a RAM, aGPU, one or more microprocessors, and other electronic parts capable ofprocessing input data according to predetermined logic. For example, thevehicle controller 210 may load process data and the like for the sharedvehicle management service, which will be described below, between anytwo of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the shared vehiclemanagement server 30 into the RAM and perform various types ofprocessing according to a loaded program.

The vehicle information acquiring unit 220 may acquire information fromat least one of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and theshared vehicle management server 30. The vehicle information acquiringunit 220 may select and acquire information corresponding to the user'sintention from at least one of the user device 10, the shared vehicleand the shared vehicle management server 30.

As an example, the vehicle information acquiring unit 220 may acquireuser information received through the vehicle receiving unit 260. Theuser information may be information provided by the user device 10 orinformation provided by the shared vehicle management server 30. Theuser information may be acquired on the basis of a call message which isprovided to the shared vehicle management server 30 by the user device10.

In particular, the user information may include pickup and drop-offinformation, article information, path information, etc. of the userincluded in the call message. The user information may include path andtime information between the pickup location acquired on the basis ofthe call message and a current location of the shared vehicle. Asdescribed above, the user information may include location informationsuch as GPS information.

As another example, the vehicle information acquiring unit 220 mayacquire intra-vehicle information received by the vehicle receiving unit260. The intra-vehicle information may include whether a user is ridingin the shared vehicle 20, whether the user has loaded an article, astate of the shared vehicle 20, travel information of the shared vehicle20, and the like. The travel information of the shared vehicle 20 may beacquired on the basis of information of the GPS and the like installedin the shared vehicle 20.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an intra-vehicle sensor of a shared vehicleaccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.Referring to FIG. 4 , the intra-vehicle information may be acquired onthe basis of an intra-vehicle sensor device 225. The intra-vehiclesensor device 225 may be a sensor system installed in a vehicle. Theintra-vehicle sensor device 225 may include an object recognition systemwhich employs an optical sensor. For example, the intra-vehicle sensordevice 225 may employ an object recognition device, such as a radiodetection and ranging (RaDAR) device, a red-green-blue (RGB) camera, ora depth camera, or a multimodal technique for recognizing an objectthrough a light detection and ranging or laser imaging, detection, andranging (LIDAR) device. For example, the intra-vehicle sensor device 225may be positioned in at least a partial area of the inside of thevehicle. The intra-vehicle sensor device 225 may be placed at a positionappropriate for sensing the inside of the vehicle overall. For example,the intra-vehicle sensor device 225 may be installed on each of bothside surfaces of the vehicle.

In particular, the intra-vehicle information may include the user's useinformation of the shared vehicle 20 after the shared vehicle 20 arrivesat the pickup location of the user on the basis of the call messageprovided by the shared vehicle management server 30. Also, theintra-vehicle information may include whether the user has loaded anarticle in the shared vehicle 20, and it may be checked through theintra-vehicle information whether the article is loaded or unloaded inconnection with the user's getting in or out of the shared vehicle 20.

As another example, the vehicle information acquiring unit 220 mayacquire external information received through the vehicle receiving unit260. The external information may include traffic information, emergencyinformation, and the like. The traffic information may be receivedthrough the shared vehicle management server 30 and may include trafficsituation information related to a travel path of the shared vehicle 20.The emergency information may include information that is taken intoconsideration first when the shared vehicle 20 provides the sharedvehicle service. For example, the emergency information may includeurgent information, such as a state of the user, a state of the sharedvehicle 20, and occurrence of a traffic accident.

The drive unit 230 may operate the shared vehicle 20. The drive unit 230may operate to be switchable among various operating modes. The driveunit 230 may operate the shared vehicle 20 in a manual mode, asemi-autonomous mode, or an autonomous mode. In the manual mode, theshared vehicle 20 may be operated by a driver like a general vehicle.The semi-autonomous mode or the autonomous mode may be available whenthe drive unit 230 includes an autonomous-driving module. However, inthe semi-autonomous mode, the drive unit 230 does not operate the sharedvehicle 20 fully autonomously. The semi-autonomous mode may include someautonomous characteristics, such as cruise control and lane keeping, andalso requires a driver's manipulation. In the autonomous mode, a vehicleis driven by the autonomous-driving module without a driver'sintervention.

When the drive unit 230 operates in the autonomous mode, the drive unit230 may be implemented as a computer-readable program which implementsvarious processes. The autonomous-driving module may drive on the basisof information provided by the shared vehicle management server 30. Inparticular, the autonomous-driving module may include a machine learningalgorithm, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to perform autonomousdriving by integrating information provided by the user device 10, theshared vehicle 20, and the shared vehicle management server 30. Themachine learning algorithm may conduct an analysis through AI which istrained with a plurality of pieces of data in advance. For example, thescale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), a histogram of orientedgradient (HOG), Haar features, Ferns, a local binary pattern (LBP), themodified census transform (MCT), a neural network (NN), a deep neuralnetwork (DNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), etc. may be used.

The state display 240 may be an element for externally or internallydisplaying a service-use state of the shared vehicle 20. The statedisplay 240 may be an element positioned on an external side of theshared vehicle 20 so that the service-use state of the shared vehicle 20may be recognized from the outside of the vehicle. The state display 240may be an element placed in the shared vehicle 20 so that a passengermay recognize the service-use state of the vehicle in the vehicle. Also,the state display 240 may be an element displayed in a form which may berecognized by a user or from the outside of the shared vehicle 20 on thebasis of a visual element, an auditory element, or the like.

FIG. 5 is a set of diagrams showing an element for displaying a state ofa shared vehicle according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Referring to FIG. 5 , in the shared vehicle, the statedisplay 240 may be installed at a position to be externally recognized,and the state display 240 may be set as shown in FIG. 5A, 5B, or 5Cdepending on the service-use state of the shared vehicle 20.

The aforementioned service-use state of the shared vehicle 20 may denoteinformation related to service providing of the shared vehicle 20. Theservice-use state of the shared vehicle 20 may denote a service stage ofthe shared vehicle 20 which is currently being provided. The service-usestate of the shared vehicle 20 may be classified according to theprovided service stage of the shared vehicle 20, and the service stagemay include a plurality of stages. As the service stage, the service-usestate of the shared vehicle 20 may be generally classified into a firststate in which the service is not currently provided, a second state inwhich the service is scheduled to be provided, and a third state inwhich the service is provided.

The first state may correspond to FIG. 5A, indicating an available statein which the service is not started yet. The second state may correspondto FIG. 5B, indicating a reserved state in which the service will beprovided to a user. The third state may correspond to FIG. 5C,indicating an in-use state in which the service is provided. Indicationsdisplayed by the state display 240 may be classified as available 241,reserved 243, and in-use 245, but the indications are not limited toFIG. 5 as long as they are distinguishable from each other.

The vehicle communication unit 250 may perform communication between atleast two of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the sharedvehicle management server 30. The vehicle communication unit 250 may beimplemented by a processor, which executes a communication interface,mainly on the basis of a memory and a storage device.

For example, the vehicle communication unit 250 may cause a call messageor vehicle request information input from the user device 10 to betransmitted to the shared vehicle management server 30. Also, thevehicle communication unit 250 may cause vehicle information (a vehicletype, a vehicle license number, a vehicle color, etc.) of the sharedvehicle 20 dispatched by the shared vehicle management server 30 to betransmitted. Further, the vehicle communication unit 250 may cause useinformation of the shared vehicle 20 to be transmitted to the sharedvehicle management server 30.

In addition, the vehicle communication unit 250 may cause securityinformation required for a user to use the shared vehicle managementservice to be transmitted to the shared vehicle management server 30.The security information may be riding security information (e.g., doorunlocking) for using the shared vehicle 20. The security information maybe article-related security information for accessing the trunk of theshared vehicle 20. When a problematic situation occurs in the sharedvehicle 20, the security information may be information which isprovided only to a user related to the problematic situation.

The vehicle receiving unit 260 may receive user information, vehicleinformation, etc. input to the shared vehicle 20. The informationreceived by the vehicle receiving unit 260 may be provided to thevehicle information acquiring unit 220. Also, the vehicle receiving unit260 may receive information received through the vehicle communicationunit 250. The vehicle receiving unit 260 may be implemented by aprocessor, which executes at least one of a user interface and acommunication interface, mainly on the basis of a memory and a storagedevice.

A configuration of the shared vehicle management server 30 is describedin further detail below.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the shared vehicle management server 30according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.Referring to FIG. 6 , the shared vehicle management server 30 mayinclude at least one of a server controller 310, a server informationacquiring unit 320, a path calculator 330, a vehicle dispatching unit340, a server communication unit 350, a server receiving unit 360, and adata storage 370. However, the vehicle management server 30 is notlimited to the configuration, and another element may be furtherincluded or an element may be replaced by another element as necessary.

The server controller 310 may control operation of the shared vehiclemanagement server 30. The server controller 310 may control operation ofany one of the server information acquiring unit 320, the pathcalculator 330, the vehicle dispatching unit 340, the servercommunication unit 350, the server receiving unit 360, and the datastorage 370.

The server controller 310 may include at least one of a CPU, a RAM, aGPU, one or more microprocessors, and other electronic parts capable ofprocessing input data according to predetermined logic. For example, theserver controller 310 may load process data and the like for the sharedvehicle management service, which will be described below, between anytwo of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the shared vehiclemanagement server 30 into the RAM and perform various types ofprocessing according to a loaded program.

The server information acquiring unit 320 may acquire information fromat least one of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and theshared vehicle management server 30. The server information acquiringunit 320 may select and acquire information corresponding to the user'sintention from at least one of the user device 10, the shared vehicleand the shared vehicle management server 30.

For example, the server information acquiring unit 320 may acquireinformation of the shared vehicle 20 received through the serverreceiving unit 360 and information provided by the user device 10. Theserver information acquiring unit 320 may acquire information which isacquired through the server communication unit 350 and received by theserver receiving unit 360.

For example, the server information acquiring unit 320 may acquiretravel information, vehicle state information, vehicle locationinformation, etc. of the shared vehicle as the information of the sharedvehicle 20. In particular, the server information acquiring unit 320 mayacquire information on a location of the shared vehicle 20 on the basisof location information, such as GPS information, of the shared vehicle20. Also, the server information acquiring unit 320 may acquireinformation on a vehicle state from the state display 240 of the sharedvehicle 20.

For example, the server information acquiring unit 320 may acquirelocation information, pickup and drop-off information, articleinformation, preference information, etc. of the user as userinformation of the user device 10. The user information may be the sameas described above. In particular, the server information acquiring unit320 may acquire the information on a location of the user on the basisof location information, such as GPS information, of the user device 10.Also, the server information acquiring unit 320 may acquire at least oneof the pickup and drop-off information and the article information onthe basis of user information input to the user device 10.

For example, the server information acquiring unit 320 may acquireexternal information. As the external information, road information,traffic information, weather information, etc. may be acquired from anexternal database. The road information, the traffic information, andthe weather information may be updated and acquired in real time as theexternal information.

The path calculator 330 may calculate a path on the basis of thelocation information of the user and the location information of theshared vehicle 20 acquired from the server information acquiring unit320. The path calculator 330 may calculate a path on the basis of acertain criterion, which may include a shortest path, a shortest time, alowest cost, and the like. The path calculator 330 may calculate a pathbetween the location information of the user and the locationinformation of the shared vehicle 20. Also, the path calculator 330 maycalculate a path between the pickup location and the drop-off locationincluded in the location information of the user. Further, the pathcalculator 330 may calculate a path on the basis of the externalinformation acquired from the server information acquiring unit 320. Inaddition, the path calculator 330 may integrate the location informationof the shared vehicle 20, the location information of the user, and theexternal information to calculate a path according to the certaincriterion.

The path calculator 330 may perform the path calculation with a certaincomputer program. The path calculator 330 may perform the pathcalculation with an algorithm of the certain computer program. Also, thepath calculator 330 may perform the path calculation through AI. Thepath calculator 330 may perform the path calculation through AI which istrained with a plurality of pieces of data in advance. In the pathcalculator 330, the SIFT, a HOG, Haar features, Ferns, an LBP, the MCT,an NN, a DNN, a CNN, etc. may be used.

The vehicle dispatching unit 340 may provide vehicle dispatchinformation for the user to the shared vehicle 20 on the basis of theinformation acquired from the server information acquiring unit 320 andthe path calculated by the path calculator 330. Also, the vehicledispatching unit 340 may provide dispatch information for the user tothe shared vehicle 20 on the basis of information based on at least oneof the user information, the location information of the shared vehicle20, and the external information acquired from the server informationacquiring unit 320 and the path information calculated by the pathcalculator 330.

The vehicle dispatching unit 340 may provide the dispatch informationfor the user regarding the shared vehicle 20, and the dispatchinformation may be provided regarding any one of a plurality of sharedvehicles 20 according to a certain criterion. The certain criterion maybe information set or input by the user and may be a shortest path, ashortest time, a lowest cost, user preference, and the like.

The server communication unit 350 may perform communication between atleast two of the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the sharedvehicle management server 30. The server communication unit 350 may beimplemented by a processor, which executes a communication interface,mainly on the basis of a memory and a storage device.

For example, the server communication unit 350 may cause a call messageor vehicle request information input from the user device 10 to bereceived in the shared vehicle management server 30. Also, the servercommunication unit 350 may cause vehicle information (a vehicle type, avehicle license number, a vehicle color, etc.) of the dispatched sharedvehicle 20 to be received in the shared vehicle management server 30.Further, the server communication unit 350 may cause use information ofthe shared vehicle 20 provided by the shared vehicle management server30 to be received in the shared vehicle management server 30.

In addition, the server communication unit 350 may cause securityinformation required for a user to use the shared vehicle managementservice to be transmitted from the shared vehicle management server 30.The security information may be riding security information (e.g., doorunlocking) for using the shared vehicle 20. Also, the securityinformation may be article-related security information for accessingthe trunk of the shared vehicle 20.

The server receiving unit 360 may receive information received in theshared vehicle management server 30. The information received by theserver receiving unit 360 may be provided to the server informationacquiring unit 320. Also, the server receiving unit 360 may receiveinformation received through the server communication unit 350. Theserver receiving unit 360 may be implemented by a processor, whichexecutes at least one of a user interface and a communication interface,mainly on the basis of a memory and a storage device.

The data storage 370 may store data transmitted and received between theuser device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the shared vehicle managementserver 30. The data storage 370 may also store geographical data (mapdata), registered shared vehicle data, etc. as the external data. Thedata storage 370 may also store data on a use history of the user device10 through which the shared vehicle service is used. The data storage370 may also store data on a path history, a providing history, etc. ofthe shared vehicle 20 providing the shared vehicle service. The datastorage 370 may also store data on a dispatch history, a computationhistory, etc. for the shared vehicle management server 30 to provide theshared vehicle service.

The shared vehicle service performed by the shared vehicle serviceproviding system 1 including the user device 10, the shared vehicle 20,and the shared vehicle management server 30 is described in detailbelow.

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram of a shared vehicle service providingmethod performed by a shared vehicle, a server, and a device accordingto the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 8 is adiagram showing a vehicle travel path generated with the use of a sharedvehicle service according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 , a shared vehicle service providing methodperformed by a shared vehicle service providing system including atleast one of a device 10, a shared vehicle 20, and a server 30 mayprovide a shared vehicle service through certain operations.

Referring to FIG. 8 , A denotes the location of the shared vehicle 20, Bdenotes a pickup location or a starting point of a user, and C denotes adrop-off location or a destination of the user. Also, referring to FIG.8 , the path between A which is the location of the shared vehicle 20and B which is the pickup location of the user is referred to as a firstpath D1, and the path between B which is the pickup location of the userand C which is the drop-off location of the user is referred to as asecond path D2.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, a sharedvehicle service may be provided so that a call message is transmittedfrom the device 10 to the server 30 (S1). The call message transmissionS1 may be an operation in which the device 10 provides a call messagefor requesting the server 30 to dispatch the shared vehicle 20. In thiscase, the call message may be a signal for the device 10 to request theserver 30 to dispatch the shared vehicle 20. As described above, thecall message may include a transmission time at which the call messageis transmitted from the device 10, a requested dispatch time of theuser, and information on the pickup location B, the drop-off location C,and the like.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the server 30 searches forvehicles which may be dispatched on the basis of transmission S1 of thecall message (S2). The search S2 for vehicles that may be dispatched maybe an operation in which the server 30 searches for vehicles that may bedispatched on the basis of shared vehicle information data stored in thedata storage 370. The search S2 for vehicles that may be dispatched maybe an operation in which the server 30 searches for vehicles that may bedispatched on the basis of the shared vehicle information data stored inthe data storage 370 and the information included in the call message.Here, a shared vehicle may be determined to be available for dispatchwhen the current location A of the shared vehicle is a certain distanceor less away from the pickup location B of the user of the device 10,the service-use state of the shared vehicle is the available state, orthe like.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the server 30 transmits adispatch message to the shared vehicle 20 which is found in the searchS2 for vehicles that may be dispatched (S3). The transmission S3 of thedispatch message may be an operation in which the server 30 provides adispatch message for requesting dispatch of the shared vehicle 20 to theshared vehicle 20. Here, the dispatch message may be a signal for theserver 30 to request dispatch of the shared vehicle 20. As describedabove, the dispatch message may include the transmission time at whichthe call message is transmitted from the device 10, the requesteddispatch time of the user of the device 10, and the information on thepickup location B, the drop-off location C, and the like.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the shared vehicle 20 moves tothe starting point according to the transmission S3 of the dispatchmessage (S4). The vehicle movement S4 to the starting point may be anoperation in which the shared vehicle 20 moves to the pickup location ofthe user of the device 10 according to the dispatch message. The vehiclemovement S4 to the starting point may be an operation in which theshared vehicle 20 moves to the pickup location B of the user of thedevice 10 along the first path D1 according to the dispatch message. Thefirst path D1 may be a path calculated by the path calculator 330according to the certain criterion.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the shared vehicle 20 transmitsa waiting-for-pickup message to the server 30 (S5). The transmission S5of the waiting-for-pickup message may be an operation in which theshared vehicle 20 notifies the server 30 that the vehicle movement S4 tothe starting point has been performed according to the dispatch messageof the server 30. The waiting-for-pickup message may be a message fornotifying the server 30 that the shared vehicle 20 is waiting at thepickup location of the user of the device 10 included in the dispatchmessage.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the device 10 transmits a pickupmessage to the server 30 when the user of the device 10 rides in theshared vehicle (S6). The transmission S6 of the pickup message may be anoperation in which the user of the device 10 notifies the server 30 thatthe user is safely and smoothly using the service with the sharedvehicle 20.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the shared vehicle 20 moves tothe destination requested by the user of the device 10 (S7). The vehiclemovement S7 to the destination may be an operation in which the sharedvehicle 20 moves to the drop-off location of the user of the device 10according to the pickup message. The vehicle movement S7 to thedestination may be an operation in which the shared vehicle 20 moves tothe drop-off location C of the user of the device 10 along the secondpath D2 according to the pickup message. The second path D2 may be apath calculated by the path calculator 330 of the shared vehiclemanagement server 30 according to the certain criterion.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the shared vehicle 20 transmitsan end-of-travel message to the server (S8). The transmission S8 of anend-of-travel message may be an operation in which the shared vehicle 20notifies the server 30 that the vehicle movement S7 to the destinationhas been performed according to the dispatch message of the server 30.The end-of-travel message may be a message for notifying the server 30that the shared vehicle 20 has arrived at the drop-off location of theuser of the device 10 included in the dispatch message.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the device 10 transmits adrop-off message to the server (S9) when the user of the device 10 getsout of the shared vehicle 20. The transmission S9 of the drop-offmessage may be an operation in which the user of the device 10 notifiesthe server 30 that the user has been safely and smoothly used theservice with the shared vehicle 20.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a shared vehicle management service providingmethod performed by a shared vehicle management server according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 9 ,the shared vehicle management service may be provided through a sharedvehicle management process including at least one of an operation S10 ofreceiving a call message, an operation S30 of searching for an availablevehicle, an operation S50 of transmitting a dispatch message, and anoperation S70 of transmitting a delay message. However, the sharedvehicle management process is not limited to the above operations, andanother operation may be further included or an operation thereof may bereplaced by another operation as necessary.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 9 , the shared vehicle management process mayinclude the call message receiving operation S10 in which the callmessage input through the user device 10 is received by the sharedvehicle management server 30. The call message may include the userinformation, such as the location information and the preferenceinformation of the user, and the user information may be the same asdescribed above. In the reception S10 of a call message, the callmessage may be received, and the call message may include the pickup anddrop-off information of the user, which may include information on thepickup location B and the drop-off location C of the user.

In the shared vehicle management process, with the reception S10 of thecall message, an available vehicle may be searched for on the basis ofthe user information S30. The search S30 for an available vehicle may bean operation in which a vehicle corresponding to the user informationreceived in the reception of a call message is searched for among theplurality of shared vehicles 20. The search S30 for an available vehiclemay be an operation in which a vehicle is searched for on the basis ofthe user information received in the reception S10 of a call message andvehicle information acquired from the shared vehicle 20. As describedabove, the vehicle information may include vehicle state information,vehicle use information, path information, etc. acquired from the sharedvehicle 20. Also, the vehicle information may include path informationwhich is calculated on the basis of the location A of the shared vehicle20 according to the certain criterion. The available vehicle may denotea case in which at least any one of the plurality of shared vehicles 20corresponds to the call message received in the reception S10 of a callmessage and the certain criterion.

The shared vehicle management process may include the dispatch messagetransmitting operation S50 in which when an available vehicle issearched for in the search S30 for an available vehicle, the sharedvehicle management server 30 transmits a dispatch message to the sharedvehicle 20. The dispatch message transmitting operation S50 may be anoperation in which the shared vehicle management server 30 transmits adispatch message generated on the basis of the pickup and drop-offinformation received in the reception S10 of a call message and the liketo the shared vehicle 20. Also, in the dispatch message transmittingoperation S50, when the shared vehicle 20 receives the dispatch messagefrom the shared vehicle management server 30, the shared vehicle 20 maytransmit an acknowledgement message of the dispatch message to the userdevice 10.

The shared vehicle management process may include the delay messagetransmitting operation S70 in which when no available vehicle is foundin the search S30 for an available vehicle, the shared vehiclemanagement server 30 transmits a delay message to the user device 10.The transmission S70 of a delay message may be an operation oftransmitting a message that the shared vehicle service is delayedbecause no corresponding vehicle is found in the search S30 for anavailable vehicle. The transmission S70 of a delay message may be anoperation of transmitting a message including a delay time, the degreeof delay, a delay reason, etc. on the basis of information found in thesearch S30 for an available vehicle. Also, in the transmission S70 of adelay message, the delay message may be transmitted to the user device10, and then the search S30 for an available vehicle may be performed sothat the search may be continuously performed to provide the sharedvehicle service in the shared vehicle management process.

Consequently, the shared vehicle management process may provide a sharedvehicle service suited to a user on the basis of at least one of theuser device 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the shared vehicle managementserver 30. Also, the shared vehicle management process may improve auser's service satisfaction and convenience by providing a sharedvehicle best suited to a call message of the user on the basis ofinformation provided by at least one of the user device 10, the sharedvehicle 20, and the shared vehicle management server 30.

The shared vehicle service which is performed when an emergency call isgenerated or transmitted is described in detail below according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

The emergency call may include emergency information in the sharedvehicle service. The emergency information may include healthinformation of a user, state information of a shared vehicle,dangerousness information of surroundings, and the like. Also, theemergency information may include information on the user's article inthe shared vehicle. In particular, the emergency information may includeloss information of the user's article in the shared vehicle. The lossinformation may denote a case in which the user who uses the sharedvehicle service forgets his or her article in the shared vehicle andgets out of the shared vehicle. For example, in the shared vehicleservice according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,an emergency call including the loss information may be transmitted tothe shared vehicle management server 30.

The article may be an object which may be loaded into a certain storagesuch as the trunk of the shared vehicle. Also, the article may be anobject that the user puts in the shared vehicle 20 when riding in theshared vehicle 20. The article may be anything having a size, weight,etc. that may be loaded in the shared vehicle 20 together with the user.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 9 , the emergency call of the shared vehicleservice according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosuremay be transmitted from at least one of the user device 10, the sharedvehicle 20, and the shared vehicle management server 30. The emergencycall may also be transmitted due to the user's request input to the userdevice 10. The emergency call may also be transmitted on the basis ofintra-vehicle information acquired from the intra-vehicle sensor device225 of the shared vehicle 20.

As an example, when the article is determined to be lost after the userof the shared vehicle service gets out of the shared vehicle 20, theemergency call may be transmitted from the user device 10 to the sharedvehicle management server 30. In this case, the emergency call may betransmitted by the user of the shared vehicle service when the sharedvehicle 20 is not used by another user or is reserved by another userafter the user has used the shared vehicle service of the shared vehicle20. Also, even when the shared vehicle 20 is used by another user afterthe user has used the shared vehicle service of the shared vehicle 20,the emergency call of the user may be transmitted to the shared vehiclemanagement server 30.

As another example, a user who first uses the shared vehicle 20 may beassumed to be a first user, and a user who uses the shared vehicle 20subsequent to the first user may be assumed to be a second user. Afterthe first user finishes using the shared vehicle service of the sharedvehicle 20, the second user may find the article loaded in the sharedvehicle 20. In this case, the second user may transmit the emergencycall about the article to the shared vehicle management server 30.

As another example, the shared vehicle 20 may transmit the emergencycall to the shared vehicle management server 30 on the basis ofintra-vehicle information acquired from the intra-vehicle sensor device225 installed in the shared vehicle 20. As an example, the intra-vehicleinformation may be acquired on the basis of visual information such asimage information acquired by the intra-vehicle sensor device 225. Asanother example, the intra-vehicle information may be acquired on thebasis of information acquired by the intra-vehicle sensor device 225such as a LIDAR system. In particular, unlike other object recognitionsystems, the LIDAR system may acquire shape information, such as thesilhouette of an object without identical features(ex. a certain patternof the object, bland, trademark or individual information may be printedon the object), thus solving the privacy issue with relation to theobject.

A shared vehicle service providing process performed by the sharedvehicle service providing system according to an emergency call isdescribed in detail below.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a travel path of a vehicle which moves whena problematic situation occurs in the shared vehicle service accordingto the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 10 , A1 denotes a first location of the shared vehicle20, A2 denotes a second location of the shared vehicle 20 or a drop-offlocation of a first call message, A3 denotes a third location of theshared vehicle 20 or a drop-off location of a second call message, andA4 denotes a fourth location of the shared vehicle 20 or a certainlocation in a path for moving to a pickup location of the second callmessage. B1 denotes a pickup location or a starting point of the firstcall message of a first user, and B2 denotes an article-reclaiminglocation of the first user according to an emergency call. C denotes apickup location or a starting point of the second call message of thesecond user. Referring to FIG. 10 , a path between the second locationA2 of the shared vehicle 20 and the article-reclaiming location B2 ofthe first user according to the emergency call may be referred to as athird path D3, and a path between the third location A3 of the sharedvehicle 20 and the article-reclaiming location B2 of the first user maybe referred to as a fourth path D4. Referring to FIG. 10 , a pathbetween the fourth location A4 of the shared vehicle 20 and thearticle-reclaiming location B2 of the first user according to theemergency call may be referred to as a fifth path D5.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the shared vehicle service providing methodperformed by the shared vehicle management server when a problematicsituation occurs in the shared vehicle service according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 11 , the shared vehicle service providing method mayinclude at least one of an operation S110 of receiving an emergency callmessage, an operation S130 of searching for vehicle-use history data, anoperation S150 of determining whether a found vehicle is traveling alonga path, an operation S160 of determining whether the found vehicle hasbeen dispatched, an operation S170 of transmitting a re-dispatchmessage, an operation S180 of transmitting a dispatch-cancellationmessage and a delay message, and an operation S190 of transmitting adelay message. However, the shared vehicle service providing method isnot limited to the above operations, and another operation may befurther included or an operation thereof may be replaced by anotheroperation as necessary.

FIG. 12 is a table showing service-use history data stored in the sharedvehicle management server according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure. FIG. 13 is a table showing vehicle information datastored in the shared vehicle management server according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 13 , according to the shared vehicle serviceproviding method, the shared vehicle service may be provided so that theserver 30 receives an emergency call message from the device 10 and/orthe shared vehicle 20 (S110). The reception S110 of the emergency callmessage may be an operation in which the server 30 receives a messagereporting that a problematic situation has occurred in the sharedvehicle service from the device 10 and/or the shared vehicle 20. Asdescribed above, the emergency call message, as related to problematicsituations which occur in the shared vehicle service, may include anabnormal vehicle state, surrounding elements, a complaint of a user,loss of a user's article, and the like. In particular, the emergencycall message may be a message reporting that a user's article has beenlost.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the server 30 searches forvehicle-use history data corresponding to the emergency call messagereceived in the emergency call receiving operation S110 (S130). Thesearch S130 for vehicle-use history data may be an operation in which asearch is performed on the basis of data of the history of using theshared vehicle service. The search S130 for vehicle-use history data maybe an operation in which information on a vehicle used by a user of thedevice 10 is searched for on the basis of data of emergency callmessage. In particular, when the user of the device 10 has used theshared vehicle service a plurality of times, in the search S130 forvehicle-use history data, a specific use of the shared vehicle servicemay be searched for according to the content of the emergency callmessage, and accordingly, a vehicle in which the user's article has beenlost may be found.

Referring to FIG. 12 , the vehicle-use history data may includepassenger information, used vehicle information, starting point anddestination information, departure time and arrival time, travel time,cost, and the like. The vehicle-use history data may be classified inorder of using the shared vehicle service. The vehicle-use history datamay be categorized and arranged on the basis of the passengerinformation, the used vehicle information, the starting point anddestination information, the departure time and arrival time, and thelike. In particular, the vehicle-use history data may be searched for onthe basis of history data corresponding to passenger information withwhich the device 10 having transmitted the call message is accessed. Thevehicle-use history data may be arranged on the basis of at least one ofthe passenger information, the used vehicle information, the startingpoint and destination information, the departure time and arrival time,the travel time, and the cost.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that the server 30 determines whetherthe found vehicle is traveling along a path in connection with the foundvehicle information acquired in the search S130 for vehicle-use historydata (S150). The determination S150 of whether the found vehicle istraveling along a path may be an operation of determining whether thefound vehicle is currently traveling along a path. The determinationS150 of whether the found vehicle is traveling along a path may be anoperation of determining whether the found vehicle is traveling along apath at a current time point after the emergency call message isreceived. The determination S150 of whether the found vehicle istraveling along a path may be an operation of determining whether travelof the found vehicle is completed within a certain time from a timepoint after the emergency call message is received. The found vehicletraveling along a path may denote that the found vehicle is currentlyproviding the shared vehicle service. The found vehicle traveling alonga path may denote that a passenger is currently riding in the foundvehicle. The found vehicle traveling along a path may be considered anexample of a vehicle-in-use state.

Referring to FIG. 13 , the server 30 may determine whether the foundvehicle is traveling along a path on the basis of vehicle informationdata. The vehicle information data may include a vehicle license number,a vehicle type, the number of passengers, a vehicle state, a currentlocation, and the like. As data about a shared vehicle provided in theshared vehicle service, the vehicle information data may be informationon the vehicle license number, the vehicle type, the number ofpassengers, the vehicle state, the current location, etc. which areupdated in real time. The vehicle information data may be arranged onthe basis of at least one of the vehicle license number, the vehicletype, the number of passengers, the vehicle state, and the currentlocation.

In particular, whether the found vehicle is traveling along a path maybe determined on the basis of the vehicle state included in the vehicleinformation data. The traveling along a path may denote traveling alonga path between a starting point and a destination of a call message.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that when it is determined that thefound vehicle is traveling or in use in the determination S150 ofwhether the found vehicle is traveling along a path, the server 30transmits a delay message to the device 10 from which the emergency callmessage has been received (S190). The transmission S190 of a delaymessage may be an operation of transmitting, because the found vehiclecorresponding to the emergency call message is currently traveling or inuse, a delay message reporting an expected time at which the travel oruse will be completed. The delay message may be a message reporting thatit will take some time to solve a problematic situation corresponding tothe emergency call message. In particular, when the user's article hasbeen lost as a problematic situation corresponding to the emergency callmessage, the delay message may be a message reporting that a time, atwhich the found vehicle is re-dispatched to the user so that the usermay reclaim the article, is delayed.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that when it is determined that thefound vehicle is not traveling in the determination S150 of whether thefound vehicle is traveling along a path, the server 30 may determinewhether the found vehicle has been dispatched (S160). The determinationS160 of whether the found vehicle has been dispatched may be anoperation in which a dispatch message has been received by the foundvehicle at a current time point after the emergency call message isreceived. In particular, whether the found vehicle has been dispatchedmay be determined on the basis of the vehicle state included in thevehicle information data.

The found vehicle which has been dispatched may denote that the sharedvehicle service of the found vehicle has been reserved by a call messageof another user. The found vehicle which has been dispatched may denotethat the found vehicle is moving to a pickup location or a startingpoint of another user in response to a call message of the other user.The found vehicle which has been dispatched may be considered an exampleof a reserved vehicle state.

The found vehicle which has not been dispatched may denote that thefound vehicle has not yet received a call message of another user. Thefound vehicle which has not been dispatched may denote that the foundvehicle is waiting for a call message of another user. The found vehiclewhich has not been dispatched may be considered an example of anavailable vehicle state.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that when it is determined that thefound vehicle has not been dispatched in the operation S160 ofdetermining whether the found vehicle has been dispatched, the server 30may transmit a re-dispatch message to the found vehicle (S170). Thetransmission S170 of a re-dispatch message may be an operation oftransmitting a message reporting that the found vehicle has beenre-dispatched to the device 10 of the user who has transmitted theemergency call message. The transmission S170 of a re-dispatch messagemay be an operation of transmitting a message reporting that the foundvehicle will move to allow the user to reclaim the user's lost articleto the device 10 of the user who has transmitted the emergency callmessage. In this case, the transmission S170 of a re-dispatch messagemay be an operation of transmitting the message including securityinformation of the found vehicle so that the lost article may bereclaimed. This is intended to prevent a third party, who is not theuser who has transmitted the emergency call message, from unlocking adoor of the found vehicle in which the lost article is loaded or usingthe vehicle.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method, the sharedvehicle service may be provided so that when it is determined that thefound vehicle has been dispatched in the operation S160 of determiningwhether the found vehicle has been dispatched, the server 30 maytransmit a dispatch-cancellation message and a delay message regardingthe found vehicle (S180). The transmission S180 of adispatch-cancellation message and a delay message may be an operation ofcancelling dispatch of the found vehicle in response to the emergencycall message and transmitting a delay message to a user who hastransmitted a cancelled call message. In general, the dispatch of thefound vehicle is prioritized, but emergency call messages areexceptionally prioritized. Accordingly, the transmission S180 of adispatch-cancellation message and a delay message may be an operation inwhich the dispatch may be cancelled. Also, the transmission S180 of adispatch-cancellation message and a delay message may additionallyinclude an operation of immediately dispatching another shared vehicle20 for convenience of the user who has transmitted the cancelled callmessage because the dispatch is cancelled in response to the emergencycall message.

Described above is a method of determining whether to immediatelyreclaim a lost article or prioritize the service for a person who hasmade a reservation in consideration of an emergency call messageaccording to whether a vehicle state is the available state or thereserved state when a found vehicle has been dispatched. However, insome cases, the subsequent user who transmits the call message and towhom the shared vehicle is dispatched may take priority over theprevious user who transmits the emergency call message.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method according tothe exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, when an emergencycall message of a second user is received after a shared vehicle isdispatched to a first user by a call message of the first user beingreceived, the shared vehicle may be moved on the basis of locationinformation of the first user.

Specifically, after the server 30 dispatches a shared vehicle to thefirst user in response to a call message received from the first user,the server 30 may receive an emergency call message about a lost articlefrom the second user. In this case, the server 30 may complete dispatchand travel of the shared vehicle for the first user and then re-dispatchthe shared vehicle to the second user regardless of whether the dispatchhas been completed (e.g., the vehicle is in the in-use state) or inprogress (e.g., the vehicle is in the reserved state).

The server 30 may determine the order of priority of the emergency callmessage and the shared vehicle dispatch on the basis of a time point atwhich the emergency call message of the second user is received and astate of the shared vehicle (e.g., the available state, the reservedstate, or the in-use or driving state). Here, the server 30 may transmita delay message to the second user on the basis of dispatch or travelinformation of the shared vehicle.

According to the shared vehicle service providing method according toanother exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, when anemergency call message of a second user is received after a sharedvehicle is dispatched to a first user by a call message of the firstuser being received, the first user may be requested to select the orderof priority. For example, in the above-described situation, the server30 may request the first user to make a selection for re-dispatch.

Specifically, the server 30 may transmit re-dispatch request informationto the first user together with information indicating that the sharedvehicle has a lost article and receive a selection of the first user. Tothe first user, the server 30 may also provide information indicatingthat a certain reward may be provided when the first user selectsre-dispatch. The certain reward may be used at least for the sharedvehicle service.

The server 30 may receive re-dispatch approval from the first user. Whenthe server 30 receives the re-dispatch approval, the server 30 maydispatch the shared vehicle to the second user and dispatch anothershared vehicle to the first user. In this case, the server 30 may chargethe second user for the dispatch of the shared vehicle on the basis oflocation information of the second user and may provide a reward to thesecond user for the approval for re-dispatch on the basis of the amountcharged to the second user.

On the other hand, the server 30 may receive re-dispatch disapprovalfrom the first user. When the server 30 receives the re-dispatchdisapproval, the server 30 may move the shared vehicle to the first userto complete the ride and travel of the first user. After that, theserver 30 may dispatch the shared vehicle to the second user and chargethe second user for the related cost.

Meanwhile, the server 30 may receive the emergency call message when theshared vehicle is in the available state. In this case, the server 30may dispatch the shared vehicle to the second user who has transmittedthe emergency call message and charge the second user for the relatedcost.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of the shared vehicle service providing methodperformed by the shared vehicle management server when a problematicsituation occurs in the shared vehicle service according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 14 , the shared vehicle service providing method mayinclude at least one of an operation S110 of receiving an emergency callmessage, an operation S130 of searching for vehicle-use history data, anoperation S155 of determining whether a passenger is in a found vehicle,an operation S160 of determining whether the found vehicle has beendispatched, an operation S170 of transmitting a re-dispatch message, anoperation S180 of transmitting a dispatch-cancellation message and adelay message, and an operation S190 of transmitting a delay message.However, the shared vehicle service providing method is not limited tothe above operations, and another operation may be further included oran operation thereof may be replaced by another operation as necessary.

The determination S155 of whether a passenger is in a found vehicle maybe made on the basis of whether a passenger is in the shared vehiclerather than a state of vehicle use. When it is determined that nopassenger is in the shared vehicle 20 corresponding to the emergencycall message in the determination S155 of whether a passenger is in afound vehicle, the shared vehicle 20 may immediately respond to theemergency call message. Also, when it is determined that a passenger isin the shared vehicle 20 corresponding to the emergency call message inthe determination S155 of determining whether a passenger is in a foundvehicle, the shared vehicle 20 may respond to the emergency call messageafter the shared vehicle service is completed.

Therefore, the shared vehicle service providing method according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure allows a problematicsituation, which occurs in a user's process of using the shared vehicleservice, to be smoothly solved through dispatch management in which theproblematic situation is taken into consideration. Also, the sharedvehicle service allows a problematic situation to be smoothly solvedthrough dispatch management in which article handling is taken intoconsideration. In particular, the present disclosure relates to adevice, vehicle, system, and method for handling a lost article arisingfrom a user's process of using the shared vehicle service of anautonomous vehicle, and when a user loses his or her article, the sharedvehicle service allows the lost article to be safely reclaimed by apassenger or a vehicle. Also, the present disclosure relates to adevice, vehicle, system and method for handling a lost article arisingfrom a user's process of using the shared vehicle service of anautonomous vehicle, and in the shared vehicle service, vehicle dispatchcan be systematically managed in consideration of an emergency situationsuch as a user who has lost an article.

A billing process of a shared vehicle service for an emergency call isdescribed in detail below.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a billing process performed by the sharedvehicle management server when a problematic situation occurs in theshared vehicle service according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure. Referring to FIG. 15 , the billing process mayinclude at least one of an operation S210 of receiving an emergency callmessage, an operation S230 of determining whether a transmittercorresponds to a message target, an operation S250 of calculating atravel distance and cost from location information, an operation S270 oftransmitting a billing message, and an operation S290 of transmitting areward message. However, the billing process for an emergency call isnot limited to the above operations, and another operation may befurther included or an operation thereof may be replaced by anotheroperation as necessary.

The receiving S210 of an emergency call message may be an operation inwhich the shared vehicle management server 30 receives an emergency calltransmitted from the user device 10 and/or the shared vehicle 20. Also,the receiving S210 of an emergency call message may additionally includean operation in which the shared vehicle management server 30 transmitsa message for checking content of the emergency call to the user device10 and/or the shared vehicle 20 on the basis of the emergency callreceived by the shared vehicle management server 30.

The determination S230 of whether a transmitter corresponds to a messagetarget may be an operation of determining whether a transmitter of theemergency call message received in the emergency call message receivingoperation S210 corresponds to a target or a user corresponding to theemergency call message. For example, in the emergency call, a user whofirst uses the shared vehicle 20 may be assumed to be a first user, anda user who uses the shared vehicle 20 subsequent to the first user maybe assumed to be a second user. After the first user finishes using theshared vehicle service of the shared vehicle 20, the first user maytransmit the emergency call message to the shared vehicle managementserver 30 regardless of whether the second user uses the shared vehicleservice. In this case, in the determination S230 of whether atransmitter corresponds to a message target, the transmitter may bedetermined to correspond to the message target. On the other hand, afterthe first user finishes using the shared vehicle service of the sharedvehicle 20, the second user who is using the shared vehicle service maytransmit the emergency call message about an article in the sharedvehicle 20 to the shared vehicle management server 30. In this case, inthe determination S230 of whether a transmitter corresponds to a messagetarget, the transmitter may be determined not to correspond to themessage target. However, the determination S230 of whether a transmittercorresponds to a message target may be omitted when the emergency callmessage is transmitted from the shared vehicle 20.

In the calculation S250 of a travel distance and cost from locationinformation, the shared vehicle 20 receives the emergency call messagefrom the shared vehicle management server 30, and then a travel distanceand a travel cost may be calculated on the basis of location informationof the shared vehicle 20 and location information of the usercorresponding to the emergency call message. The location information ofthe shared vehicle 20 may be current location information, and when theshared vehicle 20 is in use, the location information of the sharedvehicle 20 may be information on a location at which the shared vehicleservice is completed. The location information of the user may beinformation on a location at which the user wants to reclaim the articleincluded in the emergency call message or current location informationof the user. Also, in the calculation S250 of a travel distance and costfrom location information, the travel cost for the travel distance maybe calculated according to a certain criterion so that a cost may bedetermined in the billing process. The cost resulting from the emergencycall message may be discounted according to the history of using theshared vehicle service.

The transmission S270 of a billing message may be an operation oftransmitting a message which charges the user corresponding to theemergency call message the cost resulting from reclaiming of the articlecorresponding to the emergency call message. The transmission S270 of abilling message may be an operation of transmitting a billing message,which includes the cost calculated in the calculation S250 of a traveldistance and cost from location information, to the user device 10.

The transmission S290 of a reward message may be an operation oftransmitting a reward message for the transmission of the emergency callmessage to the second user when the transmitter does not correspond tothe target of the emergency call message as described above in thedetermination S230 of whether a transmitter corresponds to a messagetarget. The reward message may be a message for providing a reward to auser who transmits an emergency call message for another user's articlewhen using the shared vehicle management service. The reward message mayinclude reward information such as a coupon, discount information, andpoints which may be used in the shared vehicle service.

In the shared vehicle service according to the exemplary embodiment ofthe present disclosure, the shared vehicle 20 may be re-dispatched tothe user according to an emergency call, and a user is charged and/orrewarded accordingly. Since it is possible to immediately deal with auser who has lost his or her article and also induce voluntary action ofanother user, the user's convenience can be improved.

A shared vehicle management process related to storing a user's articleis described in detail below.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a shared vehicle service providingsystem in relation to article storing according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 16 , a sharedvehicle service providing system 2 may include at least one of a smartdevice 10, a shared vehicle 20, a shared vehicle management server 30,and a shared vehicle storage 40. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 9 , the smartdevice 10, the shared vehicle 20, and the shared vehicle managementserver 30 are similar or identical to those described above, and thusthe shared vehicle storage 40 is described in detail.

The shared vehicle storage 40 may be a place in which the shared vehicleis parked. The shared vehicle storage 40 may be at least one of storagesassociated with the shared vehicle management service among a pluralityof storages included in map data stored in the shared vehicle managementserver 30. The shared vehicle storage 40 may be a waiting place for acall message of a user related to the shared vehicle management service.Location data of the shared vehicle storage 40 may be stored in theshared vehicle management server 30. The location data of the sharedvehicle storage 40 may be shared with the smart device 10 and the sharedvehicle 20 by the shared vehicle management server 30.

In addition, the shared vehicle storage 40 may be a place in which theshared vehicle 20 is parked and may include a storage 50 in which anarticle requested to be stored by a passenger of the shared vehicleservice may be stored.

Among the elements of the shared vehicle service providing system 2, theshared vehicle storage 40 is described in further detail below.

A passenger who uses the shared vehicle service may need a place forstoring an article when residing in a place for a short time periodwithout any type of residence such as a hotel or a house. Also, apassenger who uses the shared vehicle service may need a place forstoring an article when he or she does not have a destination. For sucha case, the shared vehicle storage 40 may include the storage 50 inwhich an article of a passenger who uses the shared vehicle service maybe stored.

Accordingly, a passenger who uses the shared vehicle service maytemporarily store an article in the storage 50 and thus can smoothly doactivities without the article. Also, a passenger who uses the sharedvehicle service may temporarily store an article in the storage 50 andreclaim the article at a desired time point and a desired location.

The storage 50 may have an arbitrary form including a certain storagespace. For example, the storage 50 may be a storage space, such as abox, a storehouse, a shelf, a cabinet, or a container, havingpartitioned spaces. The storage 50 may have an arbitrary form includinga certain storage space and include a plurality of spaces separated andspaced apart from each other. In the plurality of spaces of the storage50, articles of a plurality of passengers may be separately stored.Also, since the storage 50 may include a plurality of spaces havingvarious sizes, articles of a plurality of passengers may be separatelystored in consideration of sizes thereof.

The storage 50 may have a certain personal authentication means forsecurity of articles stored therein. The personal authentication meansmay use means such as barcodes, quick response (QR) codes, radiofrequency identification (RFID), passwords, patterns, and biometricrecognition. An article stored in the storage 50 may be reclaimed on thebasis of at least one of the personal authentication means. An articlestored in the storage 50 may be reclaimed in person by a passenger whois the owner of the article on the basis of the personal authenticationmeans. An article stored in the storage 50 may be indirectly reclaimedby a passenger who is the owner of the article through the sharedvehicle 20 parked in the shared vehicle storage 40 in which the storage50 is present, and the shared vehicle 20 may provide the personalauthentication means of the passenger on behalf of the passenger. Also,an article stored in the storage 50 may be indirectly reclaimed by apassenger who is the owner of the article through the shared vehicle 20parked in the shared vehicle storage 40 in which the storage 50 ispresent, and an arbitrary manager of the shared vehicle storage 40 mayuse the personal authentication means of the passenger on behalf of thepassenger or by being delegated right of the passenger and load theshared vehicle 20.

The storage 50 may have a certain storage space in which articles may bestored, and the articles may be contained in certain storage containers(or storage cabinets) which may be stored in the storage 50. In otherwords, the storage 50 may have an arbitrary form including a certainstorage space in which the storage containers containing articles may bestored. For example, a storage container may have a certain personalauthentication means. The certain personal authentication means is thesame as described above. In this case, an article may be contained inthe storage container, and a personal authentication means may be set inthe storage container. When the storage container is retrieved, thearticle may be reclaimed with the personal authentication means. Thestorage containers may be stored in the storage 50, and a personalauthentication means set in the storage containers may be identical toor different from the personal authentication means set in the storage50.

An article contained in the storage container may be reclaimed in personby a passenger who is the owner of the article with the personalauthentication means. Also, the article contained in the storagecontainer may be indirectly reclaimed by the passenger who is the ownerof the article through the shared vehicle 20 parked in the sharedvehicle storage 40 in which the storage 50 is present, and the sharedvehicle 20 may provide the personal authentication means of thepassenger on behalf of the passenger. Further, the article contained inthe storage container may be indirectly reclaimed by the passenger whois the owner of the article through the shared vehicle 20 parked in theshared vehicle storage 40 in which the storage 50 is present, and anarbitrary manager of the shared vehicle storage 40 may use the personalauthentication means of the passenger on behalf of the passenger or bybeing delegated right of the passenger and load the shared vehicle 20.In this case, the storage container or only the article contained in thestorage container may be loaded in the shared vehicle 20.

The shared vehicle management process related to storing a user'sarticle is described in further detail below according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 17 to 20 illustrate a shared vehicle management process related toarticle storing according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a travel path of a sharedvehicle related to article storing according to a call message of apassenger. FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a shared vehiclemanagement process according to whether a drop-off location and adestination of an article correspond to each other in a call message ofa passenger.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 18 , the shared vehicle service may provide afirst storage P1 and a second storage P2 as the shared vehicle storage40. According to the shared vehicle service, the shared vehicle 20,which is parked in the first storage P1 adjacent to a pickup locationincluded in a first call message C1 of a passenger, may be dispatched.According to the shared vehicle service, a destination included in thefirst call message C1 of the passenger may include a first destinationD1 and a second destination D2. The first destination D1 may be adrop-off location of the passenger, and the second destination D2 may bea location for storing an article of the passenger. In the sharedvehicle service, the article may be reclaimed by the shared vehicle 20parked in the article storing location D2 according to anarticle-reclaiming request included in a second call message C2 of thepassenger.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 18 , the shared vehicle management process mayinclude at least one of an operation S310 of receiving a call message,an operation S320 of determining whether an article is included, anoperation S330 of receiving a drop-off message, an operation S340 ofdetermining whether a drop-off location corresponds to the destinationof an article, an operation S351 of storing the article in a storageadjacent to the drop-off location, and an operation S355 of storing thearticle in a storage adjacent to the destination of the article.However, the shared vehicle management process is not limited to theabove operations, and another operation may be further included or anoperation thereof may be replaced by another operation as necessary.

The reception S310 of a call message may be an operation of receiving acall message from a passenger of the shared vehicle service. In thereception S310 of a call message, a call message may be received from apassenger of the shared vehicle service, and a first shared vehicle maybe dispatched among a plurality of shared vehicles 20 parked in thefirst storage P1 adjacent to a pickup location of the passenger includedin the call message. Other details of the reception S310 of a callmessage may be the same as described above.

The determination S320 of whether an article is included may be anoperation of determining whether article information is included in userinformation which is included in the call message received in thereception S310 of a call message. The determination S320 of whether anarticle is included may be an operation of determining whether a requestto store the article of the user is included in the user informationwhich is included in the call message. In particular, the determinationS320 of whether an article is included may be an operation ofdetermining whether there is a request to store any one of the user'sarticles when the user uses the shared vehicle service. Thedetermination S320 of whether an article is included may be made on thebasis of whether a request to store an article is included in the callmessage or whether an article is stored in a certain location in theshared vehicle related to a request for storing. The certain locationmay be the trunk or a separately partitioned storage space in the sharedvehicle. Also, the certain location may be an area secured by a personalauthentication means.

The reception S330 of a drop-off message may be an operation ofreceiving a drop-off message of the user of the shared vehicle service.The drop-off message may indicate that the former of the firstdestination D1 and the second destination D2 included in the callmessage of the user of the shared vehicle service is the drop-offlocation. In the reception S330 of a drop-off message, the drop-offmessage may be received by the shared vehicle management server 30 fromat least one of the smart device 10 and the shared vehicle 20. In thereception S330 of a drop-off message, although details of the user'sdrop off are received by the shared vehicle management server 30, thedrop-off message may include that the article has been loaded in theshared vehicle 20 by at least one of the smart device 10 and the sharedvehicle 20.

In the determination S340 of whether a drop-off location corresponds tothe destination of an article, whether the drop-off location of thepassenger corresponds to the destination of the article may bedetermined from the user information received in at least one of thecall message receiving operation S310 and the drop-off message receivingoperation S330. In the determination S340 of whether a drop-off locationcorresponds to the destination of an article, it may be determinedwhether the first destination D1 and the second destination D2 includedin the call message of the user of the shared vehicle service correspondto each other. Even when the first destination D1 and the seconddestination D2 are within a close range based on a certain criterion,the first destination D1 and the second destination D2 may be determinedto correspond to each other. In the determination S340 of whether adrop-off location corresponds to the destination of an article, whetherto store the article in a storage adjacent to the first destination D1or a storage adjacent to the second destination D2 may be determinedaccording to whether the first destination D1 and the second destinationD2 correspond to each other.

The storing S351 of the article in a storage adjacent to the drop-offlocation or the storing S355 of the article in a storage adjacent to thedestination of the article may be performed according to a result of thedetermination S340 of whether a drop-off location corresponds to thedestination of an article. The storing S351 of the article in a storageadjacent to the drop-off location may be an operation in which thearticle is stored in a storage adjacent to the drop-off location whenthe drop-off location and the destination of the article are determinedto correspond to each other on the basis of the user information of thepassenger who uses the shared vehicle service. Also, the storing S355 ofthe article in a storage adjacent to the destination of the article maybe an operation in which the article is stored in a storage adjacent tothe destination of the article when the drop-off location and thedestination of the article are determined to differ from each other onthe basis of the user information of the passenger who uses the sharedvehicle service. As described above, the article may be stored in thestorage 50 included in the first storage P1 or the second storage P2which is the shared vehicle storage.

A billing process is described in detail below in relation to the sharedvehicle service related to article storing according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 19 and 20 are flowcharts illustrating a billing process uponstoring a passenger's article.

Referring to FIG. 19 , the billing process upon storing an article of apassenger may include at least one of an operation S360 of receiving anarticle storing message, an operation S370 of determining whether adrop-off location and an article storing location differ from eachother, an operation S380 of calculating a travel distance and cost fromlocation information, and an operation S390 of transmitting a billingmessage. However, the billing process upon storing a passenger's articleis not limited to the above operations, and another operation may befurther included or an operation thereof may be replaced by anotheroperation as necessary.

In the reception S360 of an article storing message, the article storingmessage may be received by the smart device 10 from at least one of theshared vehicle 20 and the shared vehicle management server 30. In thereception S360 of an article storing message, a message includinginformation that the article has been stored may be received by thesmart device 10 from at least one of the shared vehicle 20 and theshared vehicle management server 30. The storage 50 may be connected tothe shared vehicle management server 30 by a separate communicationdevice. In the reception S360 of an article storing message, theinformation that the article has been stored may be provided by thestorage 50 to the shared vehicle management server 30, and the smartdevice 10 may receive the information that the article has been storedin the storage 50 from the shared vehicle management server 30.

In particular, the article storing message may include information thatthe article of the user or passenger who uses the shared vehiclemanagement service is stored in at least a partial area of the storage50 of the shared vehicle storage 40. Also, the article storing messagemay also include information that the article of the user or passengerwho uses the shared vehicle management service has passed through asecurity process with a separate authentication means and is stored inat least a partial area of the storage 50 of the shared vehicle storage40. Consequently, the article storing message may include information ona location, date, time, place, authentication means, etc. at or by whichthe article of the user or passenger who uses the shared vehiclemanagement service has been stored.

The determination S370 of whether a drop-off location and an articlestoring location differ from each other may be an operation ofdetermining whether the drop-off location of the user or passenger whouses the shared vehicle management service differs from the storagelocation of the article of the user or passenger. As an example, theuser or passenger may use the shared vehicle management service anddisembark at the shared vehicle storage 40 corresponding to the storagelocation of the article. In this case, the drop-off location correspondsto the storage location of the article, and the user or passenger may becharged only for the shared vehicle service on the basis of a distancethat the user or passenger has moved to the drop-off location and maynot be additionally charged for the transportation cost of the article.As another example, the user or passenger may use the shared vehiclemanagement service and the drop-off location and the storage location ofthe article may differ from each other. In this case, the user orpassenger may be additionally charged for the transportation cost of thearticle on the basis of a distance that the shared vehicle 20 has movedfrom the drop-off location to the storage location of the article.Accordingly, the determination S370 of whether a drop-off location andan article storing location differ from each other may be an operationof determining whether the drop-off location and the storage location ofthe article differ from each other in order to charge the user orpassenger for the transportation cost of the article on the basis of thedetermination.

After the shared vehicle 20 receives the article storing message fromthe shared vehicle management server 30, in the calculation S380 of atravel distance and cost from location information, a travel distanceand a travel cost may be calculated on the basis of the drop-offlocation information of the user and location information of the sharedvehicle storage 40 corresponding to the storage location of the article.The drop-off location information of the user may be current locationinformation of the smart device 10 or the shared vehicle 20, that is,location information of the smart device 10 or the shared vehicle 20 ofwhich the shared vehicle service has been completed. In the calculationS380 of a travel distance and cost from location information, a traveldistance and a travel cost may be calculated according to a certaincriterion so that a cost may be determined in the billing process. Also,the cost resulting from the article storing message may be discountedaccording to the history of using the shared vehicle service.

The transmission S390 of a billing message may be an operation oftransmitting a message charging the user corresponding to the articlestoring message for the cost of storing the article corresponding to thearticle storing message. The transmission S390 of a billing message maybe an operation of transmitting a message including the cost calculatedin the calculation S380 of a travel distance and cost from locationinformation to the smart device 10.

Referring to FIG. 20 , the billing process upon reclaiming of an articleof a passenger may include at least one of an operation S365 ofreceiving an article-reclaiming message, an operation S375 ofdetermining whether an article storing location and anarticle-reclaiming location differ from each other, an operation S380 ofcalculating a travel distance and cost from location information, and anoperation S390 of transmitting a billing message. However, the billingprocess upon reclaiming a passenger's article is not limited to theabove operations, and another operation may be further included or anoperation thereof may be replaced by another operation as necessary.

In the reception S365 of an article-reclaiming message, thearticle-reclaiming message may be received by at least one of the sharedvehicle 20 and the shared vehicle management server 30 from the smartdevice 10. In the reception S360 of an article-reclaiming message, atleast one of the shared vehicle 20 and the shared vehicle managementserver 30 may receive a message including information that the smartdevice 10 requests at least one of the shared vehicle 20 and the sharedvehicle management server 30 to reclaim the article. The storage 50 maybe connected to the shared vehicle management server 30 by a separatecommunication device. In the reception S365 of an article-reclaimingmessage, the information that the smart device 10 requests reclaiming ofthe article may be provided to the shared vehicle management server 30,and the storage 50 may receive the information that reclaiming of thearticle is requested by the smart device 10 from the shared vehiclemanagement server 30.

In particular, the article-reclaiming message may include informationthat the user or passenger who uses the shared vehicle managementservice requests reclaiming of the article stored in at least a partialarea of the storage 50 of the shared vehicle storage 40. Also, thearticle-reclaiming message may also include information requestingreclaiming of the article of the user or passenger who uses the sharedvehicle management service through a security process for at least apartial area of the storage 50 of the shared vehicle storage 40 based ona separate authentication means. Consequently, the article-reclaimingmessage may include information requesting reclaiming of the articlecorresponding to the location, date, time, place, authentication means,etc. at or by which the article of the user or passenger who uses theshared vehicle management service has been stored.

The determination S375 of whether an article storing location and anarticle-reclaiming location differ from each other may be an operationof determining whether the article storing location andarticle-reclaiming location of the user or passenger who uses the sharedvehicle management service differ from each other. As an example, theuser or passenger may use the shared vehicle management service andrequest article reclaiming at the shared vehicle storage 40corresponding to the storage location of the article. In this case, thereclaiming location corresponds to the storage location of the article,and the user or passenger may not be additionally charged for thereclaiming cost of the article. As another example, the user orpassenger may use the shared vehicle management service and the articlestoring location and the article-reclaiming location may differ fromeach other. In this case, the user or passenger may be additionallycharged for the reclaiming cost of the article on the basis of adistance that the shared vehicle 20 has moved from the article storinglocation to the article-reclaiming location. Accordingly, thedetermination S375 of whether an article storing location and anarticle-reclaiming location differ from each other may be an operationof determining whether a travel path is generated because the articlestoring location and the article-reclaiming location differ from eachother in order to charge the user or passenger for the reclaiming costof the article on the basis of the determination.

After the shared vehicle 20 receives the article-reclaiming message fromthe shared vehicle management server 30, in the calculation S380 of atravel distance and cost from location information, a travel distanceand a travel cost may be calculated on the basis of thearticle-reclaiming location information of the user and locationinformation of the shared vehicle storage 40 corresponding to thearticle storing location. The article-reclaiming location information ofthe user may be current location information of the smart device 10,that is, location information of the smart device 10 for which theshared vehicle service has been completed. In the calculation S380 of atravel distance and cost from location information, a travel distanceand a travel cost may be calculated according to a certain criterion sothat a cost may be determined in the billing process. Also, the costresulting from the article-reclaiming message may be discountedaccording to the history of using the shared vehicle service.

The transmission S390 of a billing message may be an operation oftransmitting a message charging the user corresponding to thearticle-reclaiming message for the cost of reclaiming the articlecorresponding to the article-reclaiming message. The transmission S390of a billing message may be an operation of transmitting a messageincluding the cost calculated in the calculation S380 of a traveldistance and cost from location information to the smart device 10.

The shared vehicle management process for a plurality of users relatedto article storing is described in further detail below according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 21 to 23 illustrate a shared vehicle management process for aplurality of users related to article storing according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 21 is a diagram showing atravel path of a shared vehicle related to article storing according tocall messages of a plurality of passengers. FIGS. 22 and 23 areflowcharts illustrating shared vehicle management processes according toa plurality of passengers' call messages for the same vehicle.

Referring to FIG. 21 , like FIG. 17 , the shared vehicle service mayprovide the first storage P1 and the second storage P2 as the sharedvehicle storage 40 of the shared vehicle 20. According to the sharedvehicle service, the shared vehicle 20, which is parked in the firststorage P1 adjacent to a pickup location included in the first callmessage C1 of a passenger, may be dispatched. According to the sharedvehicle service, a destination included in the first call message C1 ofthe passenger may include the first destination D1 and the seconddestination D2. The first destination D1 may be a drop-off location ofthe passenger, and the second destination D2 may be a location forstoring an article of the passenger. In the shared vehicle service, thearticle may be reclaimed by the shared vehicle 20 parked in the articlestoring location D2 according to an article-reclaiming request includedin the second call message C2 of the passenger.

In addition, according to the shared vehicle service, a third callmessage C3 of another passenger may be taken into consideration insetting a path for the request to store the article at the seconddestination D2 on the basis of pickup and drop-off information includedin the third call message C3. In other words, a path of the third callmessage C3 may be considered in the path of the shared vehicle 20 forthe first call message C1. When the path of the third call message C3satisfies a certain criterion, the path of the third call message C3 maybe considered in the path of the shared vehicle 20 for the first callmessage C1. The certain criterion may be related to a travel path andtime which are additionally required when the path of the third callmessage C3 is considered in the path of the shared vehicle 20 for thefirst call message C1. The certain criterion may be related to whetherthe shared vehicle 20 lacks in capacity to additionally load an articleof the user of the third call message C3.

Referring to FIG. 22 , a shared vehicle management process according toa plurality of users' call messages for the same vehicle may include atleast one of an operation S410 of receiving a first call message, anoperation S420 of determining whether an article is included, anoperation S430 of receiving a second call message, an operation S440 ofdetermining whether the destination of the article is adjacent to thepath of the second call message, an operation S450 of transmitting adispatch message to a second passenger, and an operation S460 oftransmitting a storing message to the first passenger. However, theshared vehicle management process is not limited to the aboveoperations, and another operation may be further included or anoperation thereof may be replaced by another operation as necessary.

The reception S410 of a first call message may be an operation ofreceiving a first call message from a first smart device of a firstpassenger as described above. In the reception S410 of a first callmessage, the first call message may be received from the first smartdevice of the first passenger, and the first call message may includepickup and drop-off information, user information, article information,etc. of the first passenger.

The determination S420 of whether an article is included may be anoperation of determining whether article information of the user isincluded in the first call message received in the reception S410 of afirst call message as described above. In particular, the articleinformation may include information that the user requests that thearticle be stored in a certain place among the aforementioned details.Also, the article information may include volume information of thearticle.

The reception S430 of a second call message may be an operation ofreceiving a second call message from a second smart device of a secondpassenger after the reception S410 of the first call message. Like thefirst call message, the second call message may include pickup anddrop-off information, user information, article information, etc. of thesecond passenger.

The determination S440 of whether the destination of the article isadjacent to the path of the second call message may be an operation ofdetermining whether the destination of an article included in thearticle information, which has been determined in the determination S420of whether an article is included, is adjacent to a path in which thepickup and drop-off information of the second call message is taken intoconsideration. The determination S440 of whether the destination of thearticle is adjacent to the path of the second call message may be anoperation of determining whether a path between a current location ofthe shared vehicle 20 and the destination of the article is adjacent tothe path in which the pickup and drop-off information of the second callmessage is taken into consideration. Whether the paths are adjacent toeach other may be determined on the basis of a certain criterion. Asdescribed above, the certain criterion may be related to a travel pathand time which are additionally required when the path of the secondcall message C2 is considered in the path of the shared vehicle 20 forthe first call message C1.

The transmission S450 of a dispatch message to the second passenger maybe an operation in which, when the destination of the article isdetermined to be adjacent to the path of the second call message in thedetermination S440 of whether the destination of the article is adjacentto the path of the second call message, the shared vehicle 20 passesthrough a path in which the destination of the article is considered afinal destination and the pickup and drop-off information of the secondpassenger is taken into consideration, and the shared vehicle managementserver 30 transmits a dispatch message to the second smart device of thesecond passenger. In this case, the transmission S450 of a dispatchmessage to the second passenger may additionally include an operation ofperforming a security process of locking the article of the firstpassenger in the shared vehicle 20 with a separate authentication meanswhen the dispatch message is transmitted to the second passenger.

The transmission S460 of a storing message to the first passenger may bean operation in which the shared vehicle management server 30 transmitsa storing message of the article to the first smart device of the firstpassenger when the shared vehicle 20 arrives at the destination of thearticle, that is, the final destination after the destination of thearticle is not determined to be adjacent to the path of the second callmessage in the determination S440 of whether the destination of thearticle is adjacent to the path of the second call message or thedispatch message is transmitted to the second passenger. In this case,the transmission S460 of a storing message to the first passenger mayadditionally include an operation of opening the lock of the article ofthe first passenger with a separate authentication means and moving thearticle from the shared vehicle 20 to the storage 50 when the storingmessage is transmitted to the first passenger.

Referring to FIG. 23 , a shared vehicle management process according toa plurality of users' call messages for the same vehicle is the same asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 22 except for an operation S445of determining whether the vehicle lacks in article capacity.Consequently, most details are the same as described above withreference to FIGS. 1 to 22 , and only the determination S445 of whetherthe vehicle lacks in article capacity is described in detail.

The determination S445 of whether the vehicle lacks in article capacitymay be made on the basis of whether the volume of an article of thesecond passenger exceeds the capacity of the shared vehicle 20 inconsideration of the volume of the article of the first passenger whenarticle information is included in the second call message of the secondpassenger. The determination S445 of whether the vehicle lacks inarticle capacity may be made on the basis of a certain criterion. Thecapacity of the shared vehicle 20 may be determined on the basis of acapacity stored in the shared vehicle management server 30 in advance,and the article information of the first passenger or the secondpassenger may be determined on the basis of article information input tothe first smart device or the second smart device.

In this way, the shared vehicle service providing method according tothe exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure makes it possible tostore or manage an article of a user who uses the shared vehicle in acertain place. Accordingly, convenience of the use who uses the sharedvehicle service can be improved, and mobility of the user is notlimited. Also, the shared vehicle service providing method according tothe exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure makes it possible tostore an article loaded in the shared vehicle at a certain location,such as a storage of the shared vehicle, so that an article may bestored or reclaimed at a time, place, space, etc. desired by a user.Accordingly, the user who uses the shared vehicle can be less burdenedwith article storing.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to aproblematic situation occurring in a process in which a user uses ashared vehicle service of an autonomous vehicle. In the shared vehicleservice, the problematic situation can be smoothly solved throughdispatch management in which the problematic situation is taken intoconsideration.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to articlehandling which occurs in a process in which a user uses a shared vehicleservice of an autonomous vehicle. In the shared vehicle service, theproblematic situation can be smoothly solved through dispatch managementin which article handling is taken into consideration.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a device,vehicle, system, and method for handling a lost article which isacquired in a process in which a user uses a shared vehicle service ofan autonomous vehicle. In the shared vehicle service, when a user loseshis or her article, the lost article can be safely reclaimed by apassenger or a vehicle.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a device,vehicle, system, and method for handling a lost article which isacquired in a process in which a user uses a shared vehicle service ofan autonomous vehicle. In the shared vehicle service, vehicle dispatchmay be systematically managed by considering an emergency situation suchas a user losing his or her article.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a device,vehicle, system, and method for handling article storing which occurs ina process in which a user uses a shared vehicle service of an autonomousvehicle. In the shared vehicle service, when a user leaves his or herarticle, the article can be stored safely by a passenger or a vehicle.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a device,vehicle, system, and method for reclaiming am article acquired in aprocess in which a user uses a shared vehicle service of an autonomousvehicle. In the shared vehicle service, vehicle dispatch may besystematically managed by considering an emergency situation such as theuser reclaiming his or her article.

Effects of the present disclosure are not limited to those describedabove, and effects not mentioned above will be clearly understood bythose of ordinary skill in the art from the present disclosure and theaccompanying drawings.

Although the present disclosure has been described above with limitedexemplary embodiments and drawings, various modifications and changescan be made from the above description by those of ordinary skill in theart. For example, even when the described techniques are performed in adifferent order than the described method, and/or components of thedescribed system, structure, device, circuit, etc. are combined orjoined in a different form than the described method or replaced orsubstituted by other components, an appropriate result may be achieved.

Therefore, other implementations, other embodiments, and equivalents tothe claims also fall within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing a shared vehicle serviceperformed by a server communicating with a user device of a passengerand a plurality of autonomous vehicles, comprising: storing a pluralityof locations where a luggage of a passenger can be stored; obtaining aplurality of autonomous vehicle locations by receiving an autonomousvehicle location from each of the plurality of autonomous vehicles;receiving, from a first user device, a first call message including arequest to transport a first passenger and a first luggage of the firstpassenger to different locations from each other, wherein the first callmessage includes a pickup location, a drop-off location and a storagelocation, wherein the pickup location indicates a location where thefirst passenger and the first luggage board, wherein the drop-offlocation indicates a location where only the first passenger drops off,wherein the storage location indicates a location where only the firstluggage is unloaded, wherein the pickup location and the drop-offlocation are determined regardless of the plurality of locations, andwherein the storage location is determined as one of the plurality oflocations; selecting a first autonomous vehicle to be dispatched to thefirst passenger based on the pickup location and the plurality ofautonomous vehicle locations; and dispatching the first autonomousvehicle to sequentially drive to the pickup location, the drop-offlocation and the storage location.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: in response to the first autonomous vehicle arriving at thestorage location, transmitting a first notification message to the firstuser device, wherein the first notification message indicates that thefirst luggage of the first passenger is stored in the storage location.3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first notification messageincludes a personal authentication means used for storing and reclaimingthe first luggage of the first passenger.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the personal authentication means is set by at least one of abarcode, a quick response (QR) code, radio frequency identification(RFID), a password, a pattern, or biometric recognition.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the storage location includes a storage space inwhich the first luggage of the first passenger is stored.
 6. The methodof claim 5, wherein the storage space is set to be secured or unsecuredby a personal authentication means.
 7. The method of claim 2, whereinthe first notification message includes a storage fee of the firstluggage calculated based on the drop-off location and the storagelocation.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, fromthe first user device, a second call message including a request toreclaim the first luggage of the first passenger, wherein the secondcall message includes a reclaim location determined regardless of theplurality of locations; selecting a second autonomous vehicle to bedispatched to the first passenger based on the storage location and theplurality of autonomous vehicle locations; and dispatching the secondautonomous vehicle to carry the first luggage to the reclaim location.9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: in response to the secondcall message being received, transmitting a second notification messageto the first user device, wherein the second notification messageincludes a reclaim fee of the first luggage calculated based on thereclaiming location and the storage location.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: in response to the first autonomous vehicle beingdispatched, changing a service state of the first autonomous vehiclefrom an available state to a reserved state; in response to the firstpassenger riding the first autonomous vehicle, changing the servicestate of the first autonomous vehicle from the reserved state to anin-use state; and in response to the first luggage being stored in thestorage location, changing the service state of the first autonomousvehicle from the in-use state to the available state.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the service state of each of the plurality ofautonomous vehicles is one of the available state, the reserved state,and the in-use state, and wherein the selecting the first autonomousvehicle comprises: selecting the first autonomous vehicle from among theplurality of autonomous vehicles whose service state is in the availablestate to be dispatched to the first passenger based on the pickuplocation and the plurality of autonomous vehicle locations.